BV 4010 
,M5 



•'■;•- ." 




n 



I 



[HE MINISTE: 
LAN AMONG MEN 




Class J3ZiCL__ 
Book.____^ 
CojpgM 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



I 

J 




A* $> A^^f 



THE MINISTER A MAN 
AMONG MEN 

WITH A 

Biographical Sketch of 
Rev. Charles F. McCauley, D.D. 



REV. RUFUS W. MILLER, D.D. 

Secretary, Publication and Sunday School 
Board of the Reformed Church 



HEIDELBERG PRESS 

FIFTEENTH AND RACE STREETS 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 






Copyright, 1917, by Rufus W. Miller 



Steinman & Foltz, 
Lancaster, Pa. 



JUL -3 1917 
©CI.A470253 









To 

The McCauley Family 
Whose devotion to their parents and 
to their Church presents an 
inspiring example 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Foreword 9 

Chapter I. 
Life of Rev. Charles F. McCauley, D.D.. . . 17 

Chapter II. 

The Minister's Personality and Manners. . . 69 

Chapter III. 

The Minister as a Man in his Relation to and 
with Others 119 

Chapter IV. 

The Minister as a Man in Relation to the 
Church 165 



"There is a land where a man, to live, must 
be a man. 

"It is a land of granite and marble and por- 
phyry and gold — and a man's strength must 
be as the strength of the primeval hills. It is 
a land of oaks and cedars and pines — and a 
man's mental grace must be as the grace of 
the untamed trees. It is a land of far-arched 
and unstained skies, where the wind sweeps 
free and untainted, and the atmosphere is the 
atmosphere of those places that remain as God 
made them — and a man's soul must be as the 
unstained skies, the unburdened wind, and the 
untainted atmosphere. It is a land of wide 
mesas, of wild, rolling pastures and broad, un- 
titled valley meadows — and a man's freedom 
must be that freedom which is not bounded by 
the fences of a too weak and timid convention- 
alism. 

"In this land every man is — by divine right — 
his own king; he is his own jury, his own counsel, 
his own judge, and — if it must be — his own 
executioner." 

From "When a Man's a Man." 



The Minister a Man Among Men 



Foreword 

TN THE winter and spring of 1915 
* the writer gave by invitation the 
first course of lectures under the Rev. 
Charles F. McCauley Lectureship, Theo- 
logical Seminary of the Reformed Church, 
Lancaster, Pa. The members of the fac- 
ulty and others kindly suggested the 
publication of the lectures, with a bio- 
graphical sketch of the late Rev. Charles 
F. McCauley, D.D. 

The occasion of the establishment of 
the Rev. Charles F. McCauley Lecture- 
ship on "The Minister as a Student of 
Human Nature, Clerical Manners and as 
an Executive," it is fair to say, arose 
from the fact that Dr. McCauley fre- 
quently said in the home circle that he 
wished theological students were required 
(») 



10 The Minister a Man Among Men 

to study "Miller on Clerical Manners." 
This statement had reference to a book, 
long since out of print, entitled "Letters 
on Clerical Manners and Habits/' ad- 
dressed to a student in the Theological 
Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey, by 
Samuel Miller, D.D., Professor of Eccle- 
siastical History and Church Govern- 
ment in the said seminary, published 
1827. 

During the latter years of Dr. Mc- 
Cauley's life this subject of Clerical 
Manners was frequently discussed in 
connection with the practical work of 
the ministry among the young and es- 
pecially the modern Sunday School and 
Young People's Societies. This lecture- 
ship is, therefore, a beautiful and ap- 
propriate memorial which the daughter 
of Dr. McCauley has established, grow- 
ing out, not only of the conversation of 
the home circle, but also of the life and 
character of Dr. McCauley himself. 



Foreword 11 



Dr. McCauley was a noble, stately 
figure among us. There was a certain 
old-world grace and courtesy reflecting 
the strength and dignity of his soul. In 
the family circle, among the homes of 
his parishioners, in the congregation and 
Sunday School, in the wide sweep of the 
community and in the church at large, 
Dr. McCauley was known for his cath- 
olicity of mind, his comradeship of man- 
ner, his considerateness for others and 
his charity in the discernment of others' 
opinions. 

It was the writer's privilege to be 
intimately associated with Dr. McCauley 
during the last years of his life, both 
as pastor's assistant and as a member 
of his home. Speaking from personal 
knowledge and the gracious influence of 
his personality, the writer aims to present, 
from the standpoint of his example, a 
few thoughts on the general subject of 
"The Minister A Man Among Men." 



« * * * By a g ne gentleman, I mean a man 
completely qualified as well for the service and 
good, as for the ornament and delight, of so- 
ciety. When I consider the frame of mind 
peculiar to a gentleman, I suppose it graced 
with all the dignity and elevation of spirit that 
human nature is capable of. To this I would 
have joined a clear understanding, a reason 
free from prejudice, a steady judgment, and an 
extensive knowledge. When I think of the 
heart of a gentleman, I imagine it firm and 
intrepid, void of all inordinate passions, and 
full of tenderness, compassion, and benevolence. 
When I view the fine gentleman with regard 
to his manners, methinks I see him modest 
without bashfulness, frank and affable without 
impertinence, obliging and complaisant without 
servility, cheerful and in good humor without 
noise. These amiable qualities are not easily 
obtained, neither are there many men that have 
a genius to excel this way. A finished gentle- 
man is perhaps the most uncommon of ail the 
great characters in life. Besides the natural 
endowments with which this distinguished man 
is to be born, he must run through a long series 
of education. Before he makes his appearance 
and shines in the world, he must be principled 
in religion, instructed in all the moral virtues, 
and led through the whole course of the polite 
(13) 



arts and sciences. He should be no stranger to 
courts and camps; he must travel to open his 
mind, to enlarge his views, to learn the policies 
and interests of foreign states as well as to 
fashion and polish himself and to get clear of 
national prejudices, of which every country has 
its share. To all these more essential improve- 
ments he must not forget to add the fashionable 
ornaments of life, such as are the languages 
and the bodily exercises most in vogue; neither 
would I have him think even dress itself be- 
neath his notice." 



(14) 



LIFE OF REV. CHARLES F. 
McCAULEY, D.D. 



, 



CHARLES F. McCAULEY 

rpHE life of Rev. Dr. Charles Firey 
* McCauley illustrates the truth of 
Emerson's saying: "We work as much 
by antagonism as by inspiration." 

From his youth he encountered for- 
midable hindrances. His life began in 
a peaceful country home in Ringgold's 
Manor, ten miles south of Hagerstown, 
Maryland, where he was born January 5, 
1816. His early education was secured 
in a country school of his native district 
and in the Reformed Church High School 
at York, Pa. His parents were pros- 
perous and prominent people in that 
section of the country, but by reason of 
the untimely death of his father and, 
subsequently, the second marriage of his 
mother, he was thrown upon his own 
resources. 

He entered Yale College and graduated 
from that institution with high honors, 

(17) 



18 The Minister a Man Among Men 

in 1838. After his graduation he taught, 
for two years, a family school at Natchez, 
Mississippi. This work proved of great 
service to him from a literary point of 
view. Later, he studied in Princeton 
Theological Seminary and then in the 
Theological Seminary of the Reformed 
Church at Mercersburg, Pa., graduating 
in 1843. His attractive and forceful per- 
sonality, enriched by his natural endow- 
ments, and his thorough preparation for 
the ministry, attracted the attention of 
the Rev. Dr. John W. Nevin, President 
of the Seminary, through whose influ- 
ence and advice the young minister was 
ordained and installed pastor of the Re- 
formed Church at Mercersburg, Pa., 
June 11, 1843. Indeed, by special per- 
mission of the authorities of the Sem- 
inary, Dr. McCauley began his ministry 
in the Mercersburg Church prior to the 
time of his graduation. Here he at once 
manifested evidences of indefatigable zeal 



Charles F. McCauley 19 

and singular ability. During his short 
pastorate the congregation increased 
largely in numbers and made preparation 
for the erection of a new church building. 

On November 1, 1845, he became pas- 
tor of the Reformed Church at Middle- 
town, Maryland, and continued in this 
position until December 6th, 1855, when 
he entered upon the pastorate of the 
Second Reformed Church in the city of 
Reading, Pa. 

His pastorate at Middletown was 
marked by an unusual intimacy between 
pastor and people. This was evidenced 
by the fact that when he resigned the 
congregation sent a protest and a large 
delegation to the Classis and for hours, 
on the floor of this judicatory, made an 
earnest effort to prevent the dissolution 
of the pastorate. His strong conviction 
of duty, however, led him to go to Read- 
ing, in the face of the fact that the Mid- 
dletown people offered, if he would re- 



20 The Minister a Man Among Men 

main, to pay him a salary twice as large 
as that which he would receive in Read- 
ing. 

A significant feature of his Middletown 
pastorate was the erection of a separate 
building (1846) for the use of the Sunday 
School, and the maintenance of a paroch- 
ial school — a school with a very extended 
curriculum, organized and carried for- 
ward by the congregation, under the 
general direction of the pastor. During 
this period, also, the church building 
was remodeled and the country congre- 
gation at Burkittsville was constituted 
a charge by itself. As late as 1893 the 
pastor of the Middletown congregation, 
Rev. T. F. Hoffmeier, wrote concerning 
Dr. McCauley: "He was held in high 
esteem not only by the members of his 
own church but by members of all 
churches, and by persons of no church. 
It may perhaps be said that no minister 
ever resided here who was so universally 
beloved as Dr. McCauley." 



Charles F. McCauley 21 

In those days he frequently visited 
his people on horseback. Members of 
the church who were little children dur- 
ing his pastorate have given illustrations 
of his attention and kindness to them. 
They relate how, in the home, he would 
speak to them, sometimes playing games, 
such as marbles, with the boys, and how, 
quite often, he would invite children 
to ride with him on horseback. After 
church service he would frequently lift 
little children into the carriages of their 
parents. 

Dignified in appearance and manner, 
he was kind and gentle in his bearing, 
always a real gentleman in the best sense 
of the word, and never too formal to 
draw to himself the little ones of the 
flock. That he was a faithful and fear- 
less watchman upon the walls of Zion 
is evidenced by a stirring address on the 
subject of Temperance which he deliv- 
ered at Middletown, Maryland, in 1846, 



22 The Minister a Man Among Men 

on the occasion of the presentation of a 
Bible by the ladies of Middletown to 
Catocine Division No. 30, Sons of Tem- 
perance. By request, the address was 
published. It is an eloquent and fearless 
arraignment of the liquor traffic and of 
the attendant evils of intemperance. It 
commends the use of the Bible as a chart, 
and its principles and teachings as the 
only security for individuals and the 
state. Here is a passage worthy of proc- 
lamation from every pulpit: 

"Rush, then, O! rush to the rescue 
of suffering humanity. Save the drunk- 
ard from the disgrace that awaits him. 
Open his eyes to the appalling exhibition 
of misery which is seen in his own family; 
unstop his ears to the plaintive cries 
that come from the broken heart of the 
wife, whom, on the bridal eve, he swore 
solemnly before men and in the sight of 
Heaven to protect, to honor and to love, 
and soften his feelings that he may once 



Charles F. McCauley 23 

more become capable of sympathetic and 
natural affection. Dash the scarlet gob- 
let untasted from his thirsty lips and 
frown upon the bacchanalian priesthood 
who minister to his vitiated taste! Yes, 
frown upon them until they quail be- 
neath your withering glance — for al- 
though their service is authorized by the 
law of God and man, from what strange 
and unheard-of principle is it that a man 
finds no mercy when he administers 
poison to his neighbors, but must be 
rewarded for his labor when he presents 
the intoxicating bowl, a slower but no 
less certain poison? 

"Should any one pick your pocket in 
this crowd, he is indictable for an offense 
against the State. Whence thus is it, 
that he has done a meritorious act who 
has stolen away the reason of some un- 
fortunate creature? 

"We have laws to punish him who is 
accessory to the injury to property — 



24 The Minister a Man Among Men 

how then shall we define the conduct 
which sends forth the drunkard, reeling 
through the streets at the dead of night, 
with a lighted cigar, to wander amid the 
combustible materials that are often 
found in every village and city? But 
worse, far worse than all, by grogsellers 
the torch of discord and contention is 
applied to our domestic relations and, 
instead of joy, peace and harmony, dis- 
sension, bickering and sorrow mingle to- 
gether around the fireside. And to close 
the scene, insanity and death are by them 
spread broadcast in the land. 

"Arise, then, and resist the enemies of 
Temperance, the enemies of man, and 
that you may do so with the utmost 
efficiency, take this holy Book as the 
chart by which to steer your course." 

Illustrating the affectionate relations 
which should subsist between pastor and 
people, as well as the tenderness, humil- 
ity and gratitude of Dr. McCauley, the 



Charles F. McCauley 25 

closing paragraph of his farewell sermon 
to the Middletown congregation, deliv- 
ered December 6, 1855, is well worth 
reading. The text was 2 Peter, Chapter 
1, Verse 15, "Moreover I will endeavor 
that ye may be able, after my decease, 
to have these things always in remem- 
brance." 

"But Heaven seems to beckon me 
away. O, may she give me strength, 
as this gloomy day seems in sympathy 
with my saddest heart. How severe the 
trial as I at this moment look back upon 
the past. For more than ten years I 
have had freely extended to me and 
mine, amid many sorrows, the kind at- 
tention of my faithful physicians and 
from farmers, mechanics, merchants, men 
of business, laborers, all, favors that 
bind me with a power to you that noth- 
ing can overcome. To one and all I feel 
bound by the ties of friendship. But, 
brethren and sisters, the parting hour 



26 The Minister a Man Among Men 

has come, and we who have lived so long 
in the sacred intercourse which holds 
between pastor and people must now 
clasp each other's hand for the last time, 
in this capacity, to meet again as wit- 
nesses at the bar of God. 

"If this intercourse has ever been 
marred by an unholy feeling, if in the heat 
of excitement our infirmity has appeared 
in 'hasty words uttered,' or rash acts 
committed, let this day, whose fleeting 
hours are closing over the grave of our 
intimacy, quench every burning thought, 
bury in oblivion every unf orgiven wrong, 
that no shadow may rest on the memory 
of our fellowship, that no throb may rend 
the heart, when we learn that one whose 
frailties we never forgave can no longer 
be affected by our contrition, nor reached 
by our friendship. Let all hearts burst 
the chains of selfishness and commingle 
in pure union in Christ Jesus our Lord. 



Charles F. McCauley 27 

"Beloved, our pilgrimage as pastor and 
people is over. More than ten years of 
Christian intercourse have bound round 
our hearts the bonds of friendship and 
love. The ties have been interwoven 
with our very being's growth — ties which 
here are seemingly severed, yet ties by 
which we shall find ourselves indissolubly 
bound together even in the eternal world. 
Though one in Christ wherever our lot 
be cast, yet how hard to wrench our 
hearts asunder for a little while, until 
the weary wanderings of earth are over — 
how harsh that word, farewell: 

'A word that must be and hath been, 
A sound that makes us linger; yet — 
farewell!'" 

Dr. McCauley entered upon his duties 
as pastor of the Second Reformed Church, 
Reading, Pa., December 16, 1855. This 
was two months and a half after the 
resignation of Rev. Moses Kieffer, who 



28 The Minister a Man Among Men 

had accepted the call to a Professorship 
in the Theological Seminary at Tiffin, 
Ohio. The congregation extended Dr. 
McCauley a call before hearing him 
preach. It was promptly declined. Af- 
ter earnest solicitation he preached before 
the congregation October 21, 1855, but 
expressed from the pulpit his determina- 
tion not to accept a call to become the 
pastor. The following day the Consis- 
tory acquainted him with the dangers 
which threatened the congregation and 
appealed so strongly to him that he 
finally yielded, to become the leader of 
what seemed to be a forlorn hope. 

The history of the Second Church il- 
lustrates the difficulties which occasion- 
ally attend the transition from the Ger- 
man to the English language. People 
feel most strongly on the subject of their 
religion and of their racial and national 
characteristics. It required great tact 
and wise leadership to meet the situation. 



Charles F. McCauley 29 

Rev. John Casper Bucher, pastor of the 
First Reformed Church, Reading, sought 
to introduce English preaching with the 
German. He was of the conviction that 
that old church should send out a colony 
to establish a purely English congrega- 
tion. He was partly successful in his 
efforts, for twenty-five members of the 
First Church, along with a few others, 
organized the Second Church in July, 

1848. Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Porter was 
the first pastor of the Second congrega- 
tion, conducting services in a public 
school building. After a short pastorate, 

1849, Dr. Porter accepted the Professor- 
ship of Natural Science at Mercersburg 
and the congregation returned for worship 
to the old church, but retained its organi- 
zation. Later, a building was erected 
and dedicated amidst many anxious hopes 
and fears. 

Embarrassments of the most trying 
character now succeeded each other. 



30 The Minister a Man Among Men 

The struggle for existence of the new 
church, during both the later period of 
Rev. Mr. Kieffer's pastorate and the 
beginning of Dr. McCauley's, is marked 
by a zeal and self-denial creditable in the 
highest degree to the worthy Christian 
men and women with whose tears it was 
baptized. Other denominations made 
overtures to it to pay the debt and con- 
tribute six hundred dollars a year to 
the support of the pastor, on condition 
that the congregation transfer denomina- 
tional relationship. The propositions 
were promptly declined. 

Dr. McCauley began his ministry on 
a promise of a salary of seven hundred 
dollars per year. The little congregation 
of one hundred and twenty members was 
frequently dilatory in payment of the 
salary. The people were generous but 
they were struggling to liquidate a heavy 
church debt. The mother church failed 
to render the assistance promised. There 



Charles F. McCauley 31 

were many who did not look favorably 
upon an exclusively English congregation. 
In a letter to the Consistory of the 
First German Reformed Church, as it was 
then known, the statement was made that 
"the necessities of the congregation were met, 
for the most part, by a voluntary increased 
taxation assumed by the members of the con- 
gregation and others, and that, by putting 
forth every ability to the utmost and the exer- 
cise of the strictest economy and self-denial, 
the interest was paid and the debt reduced 
considerably, but, under the embarrassing influ- 
ence of the late pecuniary crisis and the loss of 
some of the pillars of our church, by death, we 
feel that God has hedged up our path and 
there seems to be no way to go forward without 
aid from abroad, and, sustaining the relation 
to you of a daughter to a mother, we naturally 
turn our eyes homeward first, and this we do 
the more cheerfully because we hope that in 
our early home the parental heart still beats 
affectionately and that our wants will elicit 
a corresponding sympathy. With a church debt 
upon us we are not able to accomplish our 
mission for reasons which you can appreciate. 



32 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Our own efforts to remove it are proving greatly 
injurious to the prospects of the congregation. 
With us, individual power has been exhausted 
and what to do, we know not. But rest assured 
that no stone shall remain unturned if thereby 
we may perform the work assigned us and 
promote the interests of the German Reformed 
Church in this city. To remove the debt by 
turning away our home and severing ourselves 
from present ecclesiastical relations and friends 
would be to us distressing beyond measure. 
Of this you have ample assurance in our past 
refusal to do so, a refusal which has cost us 
a large amount of money but with which we 
are well satisfied if, in the end, our self-denial 
be no loss to our beloved Zion, which God and 
the Church forbid. 

"To you we now look for aid in our extremity. 
We come as a daughter to a mother and tell 
our difficulties and dangers, confident in the 
expectation that your wisdom and piety will 
direct a proper course of action whilst holding 
ourselves in readiness to answer any questions 
or make any further explanations. We anx- 
iously await your reply. 

"In behalf of the Second Church." 



Charles F. McCauley 33 

An unfavorable answer was made to 
this appeal. Then an appeal for aid 
was made through Synod, which resulted 
in only a single contribution. Personal 
application was at last found necessary. 
There was danger of foreclosure on the 
property. In the midst of a snow-storm 
and under discouraging circumstances, 
Dr. McCauley went on this mission, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1860. From the first effort 
$3192.95 was collected without any 
expense to the congregation. The total 
sum collected by him and paid over to 
the treasurer of the church amounted to 
$7256.27. His letters in the "Reformed 
Church Messenger," acknowledging the 
receipt of individual gifts from various 
congregations and giving his experiences, 
make interesting reading. In his first 
letter, speaking of presenting himself, as 
circumstances allowed, at the door of the 
church, asking aid for immediate relief, 
he says: "Had I consulted inclination I 



34 The Minister a Man Among Men 

would have declined the undertaking, but 
the pressing demands of the congregation 
render it necessary for me to be forgetful 
of personal feeling." 

From time to time during a period of 
three years, Dr. McCauley visited con- 
gregations in Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land. He made frequent acknowledg- 
ment of the kindness and sympathy he 
received from pastors and people, and 
of the formation of friendships. He gave 
interesting accounts of the progress of 
the congregations visited and referred 
more than once to incidents calculated 
to cheer the heart and illustrate personal 
and congregational piety. Evidently his 
visits to the home and his public ad- 
dresses touched the hearts even of chil- 
dren. Preaching in his former field at 
Middletown, on one of these trips, after 
having received from the congregation, 
a few years previously, a large contribu- 
tion for the church debt, he obtained a 



Charles F. McCauley 35 

second liberal offering and, as he was 
leaving the church, had the following 
interesting experience: "A little friend , 
Maggie Smith, with smiling counten- 
ance, placed an apple in my hand whilst 
bidding me a cordial welcome. Subse- 
quently, I presented it to a female friend 
who, in connection with several others, 
concluded that such an appropriation of 
it, as private property, would be a viola- 
tion of my trust, and hence they deter- 
mined to sell it for the use of the Second 
Church. The issue of the matter was 
that, after passing hands a number of 
times, they paid me $15.36 as the pro- 
ceeds of the sale. It brought as much as 
$3.50 in a single instance." 

While soliciting in Allentown, where a 
number of liberal subscriptions were 
made, a little girl who had been taught 
to give to all benevolent causes, after 
hearing a statement of the condition of 
the Second Church, expressed her regret 



36 The Minister a Man Among Men 

that her savings-box contained only 20 
cents, and at the same time her intention 
to give what she had. Her mother sug- 
gested that the sum was too small to 
offer, but the girl remained unchanged 
in her purpose, and said that she wished 
to give, not only to aid the present neces- 
sity, but that in case of her future re- 
moval to Reading, she might be able 
to find a house in which to worship God 
in the erection of which she had borne 
a part. Dr. McCauley significantly 

added, "Would that all God's people 
felt as that little girl does. Then no 
good cause would be permitted to lan- 
guish for want of funds." 

At Carlisle, speaking of the delightful 
hospitality of the people and the kindness 
of the pastor and elder, he said: "By the 
way it may not be out of place to mention 
a pleasing little incident which occurred. 
Master Stephen R,. Huyett, having 
learned that a collection would probably 



Charles F. McCauley 37 

be taken in our behalf during the Sabbath 
service, prepared himself with a dollar 
of his savings as a contribution, but, no 
such collection being taken, he embraced 
the first opportunity to hand it to me in 
person and he did it with a gracefulness 
and modesty that would have done honor 
to an older member of the church. 
Whilst he is the youngest confirmed 
member, he is, if I may judge from what 
I see and hear, all things considered, one 
of the most liberal." 

Dr. McCauley in after years often 
referred to his series of journeys extend- 
ing over 4500 miles and occupying weeks 
at a time. It was a difficult task, done 
at great personal sacrifice, illustrating 
also the singleness of purpose, the devo- 
tion and the persistent energy of the 
man. 

The successful establishment of this 
English congregation had a profound in- 
fluence upon the mother church, and, 



38 The Minister a Man Among Men 

by the wise suggestion and influence of 
Dr. McCauley, was the means of bring- 
ing Rev. Dr. Benjamin Bausman to 
Reading, as pastor of the First Church. 
During the long pastorate of Dr. Mc- 
Cauley, the Second Church became noted 
for its benevolent giving. It grew strong 
and influential. 

Frequently its annual contributions 
for benevolence exceeded the amount of 
its own current expenses. It returned 
many-fold the generous support accorded 
it in its time of stress and struggle. 

On the occasion of the thirty -fifth anni- 
versary of Dr. McCauley's pastorate, 
an address was made by Dr. Bausman. 
He said it was through Dr. McCauley's 
activity that he came to Reading, and 
at a time when he was an invalid at 
Chambersburg and not expected to sur- 
vive many years. Dr. Bausman's friends 
at Chambersburg tried to persuade Dr. 
McCauley not to take a supposedly dy- 



Charles F. McCauley 39 

ing man from Chambersburg, when he 
replied: "Reading is as near Heaven as 
Chambersburg is and if he dies I will 
guarantee him a proper funeral." During 
those days when Dr. Bausman looked 
to Dr. McCauley as his chief counselor 
and friend, their souls became knit to- 
gether in the bonds of brotherhood. The 
nature of this intimacy Dr. Bausman 
strongly expressed in these words: 
"Twice Dr. McCauley has knelt at my 
bedside in prayer when I was supposed 
to be dying. Twice I have passed 

through a similar ordeal at his bedside/ ' 
Rev. Dr. James I. Good, who also 
spoke on this anniversary occasion, said 
he was a Sunday School scholar when 
Dr. McCauley first came to Reading 
and that the good Doctor was always 
a friend of the children. He, himself, 
had gone out from the Second Reformed 
Sunday School into the ministry, as 
others have done, and he willingly bore 



40 The Minister a Man Among Men 

testimony to the efficiency of the pastor's 
work. 

Confirmatory of Dr. Good's reference 
to Dr. McCauley's kindness to children 
may be mentioned the testimony of an- 
other minister who was a son of the 
Second Church. He relates that as a 
boy he would run several blocks in order 
to have Dr. McCauley speak to him. 

In an editorial in the Reading "Tele- 
gram" there was expressed the high 
esteem in which he was held and the 
character of his work as pastor of the 
Second Church. The editor said: 

"A pastor for thirty-five years, a record of 
remarkable trials and experiences crowned by 
a success due to an untiring industry and per- 
sonal zeal and fidelity to the cause in which 
he was engaged; that is its own brilliant com- 
parison. 

"The masterly executive ability which gave 
an unpropitious project a place among the 
foremost achievements is not the only measure 
of merit. From the pulpit there came the 



Charles F. McCauley 41 

finished words of scholarship, profound Bible 
lore and practical thoughts on the duties of 
Christians. These efforts were perhaps never 
more effective and popular than now, for they 
are presented with apostolic authority and are 
like richest gems set in classic beauty and of 
rare value." 

Dr. McCauley was in a real sense the 
father of the Reformed Church Extension 
in Reading. The place of leadership, 
however, is willingly accorded Dr. Ben- 
jamin Bausman, but the two men were 
inseparably associated in every forward 
movement. Both men were remarkable 
for their modesty and humility of char- 
acter; both were of marked courage and 
unselfishness in the performance of duty. 

The relationship between Dr. Mc- 
Cauley and his people was most intimate. 
The congregation was devoted to its 
pastor and was mindful of his self-sac- 
rificing labors and his large, noble per- 
sonality. As the infirmities of years 
came upon him the congregation was 



42 The Minister a Man Among Men 

glad to lighten his labors by giving him 
an assistant. In September, 1886, Rev. 
Rufus W. Miller was ordained and for- 
mally inducted into the office of Assistant 
to the Pastor. He continued as assistant 
until the resignation of Dr. McCauley. 
It may be well to note that Dr. Mc- 
Cauley, during these five years of associ- 
ated service, usually preached once a 
Sunday, and entered heartily into the 
plans and activities of his assistant. 

Always a wise counselor, he never, 
by word or suggestion, checked youthful 
enthusiasm. He approved of the new 
methods of organization, such as the 
Home Department of the Sunday School, 
established in May, 1887, the grading of 
the Sunday School, Young People's So- 
cieties, special work for young men, etc. 
He joined heartily in the advocacy of 
the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, 
which was started in the Second Church, 
May 4, 1888. 



Charles F. McCauley 43 

The congregation grew most rapidly 
and prospered greatly the last five years 
of Dr. McCauley's pastorate, because he 
was so wise and tactful in associating 
with himself a young assistant and 
worked with him in such complete unity 
and harmony. Three hundred members 
were added during these five years and 
$30,000 given to benevolent objects. 

During the thirty-six years of Dr. 
McCauley's ministry in Reading the 
number of Reformed churches in that 
city grew from two to twelve. The last 
year of his ministry was marked by the 
erection of a building for Faith Reformed 
Church, the money for which was given 
by members of the Second Church under 
the leadership of Dr. McCauley and his 
assistant, Rev. Rufus W. Miller, D.D. 
Indeed this spirit of church extension 
served to hasten the resignation of Dr. 
McCauley as pastor. The necessity of 
taking care of Faith Church as a mission, 



44 The Minister a Man Among Men 

because of its character and location, 
along with the large and growing work of 
the Second congregation and the failing 
health of Dr. McCauley, made his retire- 
ment imperative in order to meet the 
new situation. He presented his resig- 
nation and was made pastor emeritus for 
life. 

In his farewell sermon, given Novem- 
ber 26, 1891, he said: 

"Sorrow and joy have been my lot and death 
has three times entered my household. God has 
given me his repeated benediction and many 
favors have I received from you. I thank God 
for having counted me worthy to be put into 
the ministry, although more lucrative pursuits 
and enjoyments were held out to me when I 
began. But to me this is a sad day for it severs 
ties which bind my heart strongly to you. It 
is entwined with the cradles of your children 
and the coffins of your dear ones. Ties which 
take hold of your sick beds and bind me to your 
social hearth, blazing with the fires of kindness. 

"I bespeak a welcome for my successor but 
I ask, for the pastor who has been permitted 



Charles F. McCauley 45 

to pilot you for thirty-six years of the best 
years of his life, that you may keep a chair 
by the hearthstone which the old Scotch re- 
served for worn-out parents. 

"Why do I retire when so essentially bound 
to you and yours? Failing strength reminds 
me of my inability to do what must be done 
in our enlarged work. I would retire grace- 
fully when our work is most flourishing and 
in a condition to still further advance. 'Ye 
are my crown and rejoicing."* 

Dr. McCauley did not long survive his 
active pastorate. He died June 19, 1892, 
aged seventy-six years, five months and 
fourteen days. In his last hours, in his 
delirium, he was apparently engaged in 
pastoral labors, in preaching and an- 
nouncing hymns. He repeated the hymn, 
"Jesus, Lover of my Soul" and the 
Twenty-third Psalm and his warrior 
spirit left the body with the last words 
upon his lips: "A few more struggles and 
the battle will be won." Just before, 
he had spoken and quoted to his daugh- 



46 The Minister a Man Among Men 

ter: "The Lord is my Shepherd" and 
"I Know that my Redeemer Liveth." 

Yes, the Lord is "a very present help 
in time of trouble." 

It is well never to forget that the 
success of a pastor's life is conditioned 
largely by his family and especially that 
of his helpmeet — his wife. Dr. Mc- 
Cauley was blessed with a wife fully 
devoted to his work. Mrs. Maria Mc- 
Cauley was one of seven daughters of 
Adam Hoke, born in Mercersburg, Pa., 
January 17, 1825. Adam Hoke was a 
man of substantial means and large in- 
telligence, a member of the Mercersburg 
congregation. Several of his daughters 
married ministers. On May 2, 1844, 
while Dr. McCauley was pastor at Mer- 
cersburg, they were united in the bonds 
of matrimony. Eight children, three 
sons and five daughters, were born to 
them, as follows: Martha Ellen, who 
married Mr. William M. Fox, Reading, 



Charles F. McCauley 47 

Pa.; Charles A. H., who graduated with 
distinction at West Point Military Acad- 
emy in 1870 and served the government 
continuously for forty-three years, being 
retired with the rank of Colonel and 
Assistant Quartermaster General U. S. A. 
He served with distinction in this country 
through several Indian campaigns and 
in the Philippine Islands; Edwin B., who 
was engaged in the iron business; Harriet 
Olivia, who, after the death of her mother, 
became his housekeeper and after her 
father's death married Hon. Andrew R. 
Schnebley, Mercersburg, Pa., and by her 
will established the Rev. Dr. Charles F. 
McCauley Lectureship in the Theological 
Seminary in the Reformed Church, Lan- 
caster, Pa.; Emily A. M., who married 
Luther A. Yarrington, connected with 
the Reading Iron Works; Clara, who 
taught for several years in the Allentown 
College for Women; Katharine Louise, 
who married Rev. Rufus W. Miller, 



48 The Minister a Man Among Men 

D.D., Secretary, Publication and Sunday 
School Board of the Reformed Church, 
Philadelphia, Pa.; Harry Weber, who 
graduated with distinction at Yale Uni- 
versity, 1888, fifty years after his father's 
graduation, and who is Captain in the 
Artillery Department of the United 
States Army. 

As illustrating the faith of Dr. Mc- 
Cauley and the truly Christian life of 
the home circle, there is given herewith 
an extract from a letter written to his 
daughter while on a visit to her aunt at 
Mercersburg, Pa.: 

Reading, Pa. 
July 22, 1881. 
Dear Daughter, 

We thank you for your daily letters & postals 
as they prevent unnecessary anxiety. We are 
so glad you seem to be improving & hope for 
the best results from your visit now that you 
have gotten over the overexertion you made in 
the journey. Please tell uncles Andrew & 
Henry & Aunt Hally how very much we are 



Charles F, McCauley 49 

indebted for their kindness, and especially do 
we feel thankful to uncle & aunt for the great 
care they have shown for you. I am sure they 
have the smiles of your dear sainted mother for 
all their manifestations of love. Aunt Hally 
had no greater friend living than your mother. 
She felt friendly to every one but her love for 
your aunt knew no bounds. She spoke so to 
me on the last night of her life & I know that 
death has not broken that love for it was a love 
cemented by the blood of our dear Redeemer, 
& no power, neither life, nor death, can break 
that kind of attachment. It is the love of 
your mother that is bearing so rich a harvest to 
you now — And I know you will properly appre- 
ciate the kindness shown by uncle & aunt. It 
is hard to give up so good a mother but God does 
all things well yet it is very difficult to realize 
this comforting assurance. Still by faith we 
may rest assured of this fact. We may believe 
in the presence of a divine artificer sitting at the 
loom of what men call chance or fate, & weaving 
a fabric out of unseemly material that will be 
both precious & beautiful. "All things work 
together for good" to God's people. Yes, they 
so work now. Not some things, not joyous 
things but all things. You take unseemly 



50 The Minister a Man Among Men 

colors, discordant & jarring notes, separate 
wheels, or cogs, or parts of wheels, & there seems 
nothing in them worth notice. Yet mingle the 
colors, properly placed on the canvas, combine 
the notes, & arrange the wheels, and what a 
beautiful picture, what a soul-stirring anthem, 
what a perfect & admirable machine is the 
result — We see so small a segment of the grand 
cycle of God's providence that we can not judge 
of the ultimate results. Could we see a greater 
segment many times we would no doubt rejoice 
where now we weep. Our only comfort is that 
God is our Father, infinitely wise & infinitely 
kind, and we may trust him with unwavering 
confidence. "What he does we know not now, 
but we shall know hereafter." Our afflictions 
must be interpreted in this light. He allows 
sorrows to overtake us often as the fruit of our 
own impudence or ignorance for our benefit & 
his glory. We know not at times how to read 
these dealings but if we try prayerfully to live 
near the Lord he will show his meaning in the 
end. 

Now "we study, always failing! 

God can read it, we must wait; 
Wait, until He teach the mystery, 



Charles F. McCauley 51 

Then the wisdom-woven history 
Faith shall read and love translate. 

Leaflets now unpaged & scattered 
Time's great library receives; 
When eternity shall bind them, 
Golden volumes, we shall find them, 
God's light falling on the leaves." 

Try to live near the Master & thus may we 
through grace hope to meet our loved one in 
peace & blessedness. 

Mrs. McCauley, during thirty-five 
years of the ministry of Dr. McCauley, 
stood by the side of her husband. She 
was well known to many ministers of the 
Reformed Church. She excelled in hos- 
pitality and took peculiar pleasure to 
bestow kindness upon the clergy and to 
welcome them to her home, but to her 
husband she was especially a benediction. 
In seasons of severe labor she cheered 
him with words of encouraging approval. 
At times when clouds hung over his soul 



52 The Minister a Man Among Men 

she reminded him of the sun that was 
sinking behind the clouds. When agon- 
izing over souls or the faithlessness of 
his hearers, she helped him to wrestle 
with God in their behalf, and when 
grieving over his supposed inefficiency, 
she pointed him to the unfaltering arm 
of our Father in Heaven. 

In quietness, in uncomplaining patience, 
she bore her burdens. Dr. Bausman 
wrote of her: 

"In works of charity and religion her heart 
and hands were ever eager to do and devise 
for the glory of God. In summer's heat, in 
winter's storm, she walked through our streets 
in quest of the poor and afflicted. Often she 
visited the hut of poverty alone, when affliction 
made walking painful to her, and brought com- 
fort to God's poor. All this she did at a sacri- 
fice. I know whereof I affirm when I say that 
she deprived herself of not a few comforts 
in order to relieve the wretched. Possibly, 
sometimes, she may have been compassionate 
at the expense of discriminating judgment. 



Charles F. McCauley 53 

'Oft pity gave ere charity began.' But far 
better fail in that direction than not give at all." 

How eminently appropriate and sug- 
gestive of the remarkably helpful relations 
and work of Dr. and Mrs. McCauley, is 
the fact that Dr. George F. and Emily K. 
Baer, who became members of the Second 
Church during the period of the pastorate 
of Dr. McCauley, placed a large and 
most beautiful memorial window back 
of the pulpit to the memory of Dr. and 
Mrs. McCauley. 

With the Inscription: 

"To the Glory of God and in memory of Rev. Charles 
Firey McCauley, D.D., the beloved and honored Pastor — 
From 1855 to 1892 by George F. and Emily K. Baer." 

A brief reference to Colonel Charles 
A. H. McCauley, the eldest son, is per- 
tinent. Colonel McCauley beautifully 
illustrated the close, loving relations of 
the members of Dr. McCauley's family. 
He never failed to write daily to his 
father, and he was continually planning 



54 The Minister a Man Among Men 

pleasant surprises in the way of gifts, etc., 
to his sisters. Colonel McCauley served 
in the Quartermaster's Department of 
the United States Army, and in that 
capacity lived in a number of cities 
throughout the land, as well as in the 
Philippine Islands. 

In every place he identified himself 
with a local church, either of his own or 
of some other denomination, and became 
active in Christian work. He retained 
his membership in the Second Reformed 
Church, Reading, Pa., and was always 
a liberal contributor. Indeed, he be- 
came known throughout the Reformed 
Church for his generous gifts to churches, 
to the Boards and institutions of 
the Church. And like his sister, Mrs. 
Schnebley, he made liberal bequests in 
his will. His wife, Mrs. Olive Lay Mc- 
Cauley, and the three children who sur- 
vive Colonel McCauley are continuing 
his benefactions. 



Charles F. McCauley 55 

Colonel McCauley carried on an exten- 
sive correspondence with friends and 
others whom he had met in various 
places; numerous testimonies have come 
since his death, of the wide influence 
for good which he exerted in this way. 

Colonel McCauley enjoyed an enviable 
army record. He wais an author and 
at one time a member of several societies 
devoted to educational research. He 
issued several treatises upon various 
subjects, volumes of which now occupy 
the shelves of the libraries of the leading 
geographical societies in this country and 
abroad. He was a Fellow of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of 
Science, a member of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, a member 
of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cam- 
bridge, Mass., and the National Geo- 
graphical Society, Washington, D. C, 
a man of large spirit, broad sympathies, 
intensely patriotic, and a noble Christian 
gentleman. 



56 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Dr. McCauley's Larger Work 

Dr. McCauley was preeminently a 
pastor who gave his chief time and atten- 
tion to the work of his congregation 
always with a view of enlisting his con- 
gregation in the welfare of the community 
and the work of the Church at large. 
He never forgot the timely aid rendered 
to the Second Church by the people of 
the denomination scattered throughout 
the country. He inculcated a spirit of 
benevolence and established the ideal 
plan of having all public offerings go to 
the cause of benevolence. Every collec- 
tion lifted in church services was placed 
in the hands of a treasurer of benevolence 
and administered for the missionary and 
other benevolent objects of the denomi- 
nation and for the cause of charity. 
This plan was followed by the Second 
Church many years before the subject 
of systematic benevolence was empha- 
sized in the churches. Naturally, there- 



Charles F. McCauley 57 

fore, the congregation never failed to 
meet its financial obligations and to go 
beyond the sums apportioned by the 
Classis or Synod. 

For a period of forty-four years of the 
forty -nine of his ministry, Dr. McCauley 
was a member of the Board of Visitors of 
the Theological Seminary of the Reformed 
Church. He served as a member of 
the Board of Home Missions of his de- 
nomination, was President of the Synod 
of the Reformed Church in the United 
States, October, 1873, and in 1872 received 
the degree of D.D. from Franklin and 
Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. He 
was among the first, in 1878, to endorse 
and encourage the new movement of the 
church in behalf of Foreign Missions and 
he never relaxed his efforts in behalf of 
that most important cause. While pass- 
ing through the many years of the dis- 
cussions in the Reformed Church pertain- 
ing to the question of doctrine and cultus, 



58 The Minister a Man Among Men 

though having decided convictions, he 
never became a heated champion of either 
tendency. He was a man of peace, a man 
of large charity and tolerance for the 
views of others. He engaged freely in 
union services, and especially in his later 
life advocated cooperation and united 
efforts with other churches. He used 
the stated forms in the conduct of worship 
and yet varied them as the circumstances 
seemed to demand. He depended upon 
the careful instruction of the youth, be- 
lieved in educational religion, yet he was 
sympathetic toward various forms of 
evangelism. 

Characteristics 

In person, Dr. McCauley was tall and 
slim. His presence was impressive and 
pleasing. He had hazel eyes, which often 
seemed to be brown, red hair in youth, 
which became brown as he grew older, 
features of serious import. He was a 
beautiful type of the faithful minister. 



Charles F. McCauley 59 

A man intensely human, with a loyal, 
loving heart. He ministered not as a 
lofty-minded official from his pedestal of 
prelatical isolation, not in a patronizing 
or perfunctory manner, but as a brother 
among the children of our common 
Father. Dr. McCauley sometimes called 
himself a Scotch-Irish Pennsylvania- 
Dutchman, combining in himself three 
nationalities. 

His father was of Scotch-Irish extrac- 
tion and his mother from a German 
ancestry. This combination counts for 
certain traits of his character. He pos- 
sessed the robust grit of the Scotch, the 
impulsive vivacity, willing-heartedness 
and wit of the Irish, and the indefatigable 
industry and thoroughness of the Ger- 
man. Rev. Dr. Benjamin Bausman, for 
years his intimate friend and colleague, 
in his sermon preached at the funeral of 
Dr. McCauley, gave a true portraiture 
and analysis of the man and his work. 
Among other things he said: 



60 The Minister a Man Among Men 

"He possessed an ardent temperament; his 
character and convictions were singularly in- 
tense. He was intense in his likes and dislikes; 
an ardent leader of the good and an intense 
hater of the evil. His ministry was character- 
ized by conscientiousness and consecration. 
By nature and by grace our brother seemed 
to have received a blood anointing. In what- 
ever he undertook he was in blood earnest. 
This could be seen in the privacy of his home, 
in his intercourse with friends, as well as in 
his pulpit and pastoral ministrations. He 
wrought the rich appeal of the Gospel into his 
sermons. Nature and art contributed from 
their treasures to his ministry. Even his mis- 
fortunes were turned to fortunate issues. His 
diseases and bereavements became an education, 
published for the saving of souls. His active 
mind, vivid imagination, wealth of illustration 
and fervid utterance gave him peculiar power 
as a preacher of the Gospel. His sermons 

usually were vigorous and impressive. He was 
remarkably apt as an illustrator of dark and 
difficult questions. With discriminating skill 
he would draw illustrations from daily life as 
well as from history and the natural sciences. 
By means of parable and familiar speech, he 



Charles F. McCauley 61 

taught even the unlettered hearer to grasp 
profound truths. 

"He excelled as a spiritual counselor, a 
comforter of souls distressed and of minds 
distressed. Practically he could put himself 
into their place, and see through their eyes. 
The grief of his people he often took upon him- 
self, and their joy made his life more sunny. 
He knew the path to every home, and found the 
way to hundreds of hearts. Into homes of 
culture and huts of want he was welcomed as 
a Christian gentleman, no less than as a Christ- 
ian pastor. 

"There was a time when he was familiar 
with every court and alley of this city. In the 
uninviting homes of the poor he sat and listened 
to their sad story. To many he was the best, 
the only earthly friend they had. He was the 
father of the fatherless, the friend of the widows. 
Into his heart of hearts many laid burdens 
confided to none but God and their pastor. 
The moans of their sufferings sighed through 
his prayers, and the music of their joy rang 
through his devout praise. To a marked degree 
his sermons were mirrors, in whose reflection 
the unreported home and heart life of his people 
was brought to view. The children on the 



62 The Minister a Man Among Men 

street hailed him as a loving father and plucked 
his coat to share the good man's smile. 

"Thus, year by year, acquaintance deepened 
into friendship, and friendship ripened into 
affection. The pastor became endeared as a 
spiritual father around whose grave hundreds 
drop their filial tear of bereavement. His sensi- 
tive nervous temperament felt the slightest 
touch of kindness and of wrong. It caused 
him many a pleasure and many a pang. Thereby 
the life of his people pulsated in his life. Souls 
that went astray gave him personal pain. Often 
he groaned and wilted under the reaction of 
severe conflicts for the good of others. For 
their sakes he often could not eat by day nor 
sleep by night. This keen, sympathetic touch 
with the conduct of his people sometimes gave 
him a gloomy, pessimistic view of life. 

"The bereavements of his later years left a 
shadow over his heart which was lifted only 
by death. First his beloved wife, then a daugh- 
ter and a son, were borne to their burial. It 
was the Lord's doing which he bore with Christ- 
ian resignation, but the unhealed hurt he bore 
with him to the end. Thereafter, his heart 
was divided between the home on earth and 
the home in heaven. How often he stood by 



Charles F. McCauley 63 

his three graves in the cemetery, in deep reverie, 
as though through their gateway he might 
possibly get a glimpse of those gone before. 

"These bereavements brought the eternal 
world very near to him. An over-powering 
sense of the preciousness of our Saviour, and 
of the soul's perishing need of Him; of the 
pressing importance of helping people to find 
and accept Him at once, seemed to be constantly 
on his mind. He would not rust out but wear 
out, was his saying. To my mind, one of the 
pathetic things in this brother's ministerial life 
was his intense passion for preaching Christ 
and saving souls, after being physically disabled. 
Then, more than ever, he longed to tell others 
what a friend we have in Jesus, what a father 
we have in God. 

"Thanks to the considerate kindness of his 
people, this ardent longing of his waning life 
was at least partially realized. The pastor 
emeritus died in the harness, as he had often 
wished to do." 

Dr. John S. Stahr, President and Pro- 
fessor in Franklin and Marshall College 
for many years, was intimately associated 
with Dr. McCauley and the two were 
very warm and dear friends. He writes: 



64 The Minister a Man Among Men 

"Dr. McCauley was a man of strong con- 
victions and a highly sensitive organization but 
with modesty and self-restraint he held himself 
in check so that he never lost control of himself 
or was drawn into doing an imprudent thing. 
He would not only refrain from saying an unkind 
word to his members, but more than that, he 
would not allow others to say an unkind word 
if he could help it. He had keen insight into 
human nature. He knew when to speak and 
when to keep silent. He understood when and 
how to approach those who needed his minis- 
trations and, although he could reprove and 
rebuke if the occasion called for it, yet when he 
did so it was 'the faithful wound of a friend.' 

"Perhaps his strongest trait was his warm- 
hearted sympathy, the glow of which was felt 
by all who came under the spell of his person- 
ality. Dignified in appearance and manner, he 
was kind and gentle in his bearing. In society 
generally, a real gentleman in the best sense 
of the word, but in his congregation he was even 
more than this — he was the warm-hearted, 
sympathetic friend. With great delicacy and 
tact he never tried to force himself into the 
confidence of his people but he drew their con- 
fidence as naturally as the sun draws the tender, 



Charles F. McCauley 65 

growing plant or the cup of the open flower, and 
in the confidential relations thus established he 
could help those in distress. He could counsel 
and suggest. He could open the way for the 
beneficent work of the Gospel in the hearts of 
those to whom he ministered. 

"In the church at large his influence was 
always widely felt. Modest and self-contained, 
he shrank from putting himself forward but 
he was not afraid to speak out strongly when 
the occasion required it, with a result commen- 
surate with the strength of his personality." 

Dr. McCauley may be regarded as one 
of the great out-standing characters 
which the Reformed Church in the United 
States has thus far produced. He was a 
man among men, a faithful pastor with 
breadth of view and devotion to the 
Kingdom of Christ. His personality 
made him a force in his congregation, 
in the community, in the Church at large, 
and his gracious influence is still felt. 

He was a man who was faithful in the 
every-day relations of life and his mem- 
ory will abide. 



66 The Minister a Man Among Men 

"There is no end to the sky, 
And the stars are everywhere, 
And time is eternity, 
And the here is over there, 
And the common deeds of the common day 
Are ringing bells in the far away." 



THE MINISTER'S PERSONALITY 
AND MANNERS 

Thou must be true thyself, 

If thou the truth wouldst teach. 

Thy soul must overflow, if thou 
Another's soul wouldst reach. 

It needs the overflow of heart 
To give the lips full speech. 

Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shall the world's famine feed; 

Speak truly, and each word of thine 
Shall be a fruitful seed; 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 



"God had but one Son, and He made Him a 
minister." — Thomas Goodwin. 



THE MINISTER'S PERSONALITY 
AND MANNERS 

Lecture One 

We need ever to remember the funda- 
mental truth — that the work of the 
ministry depends primarily upon per- 
sonality. Dr. Fairbairn, in his Pastoral 
Theology, has put it forcefully: 

"As the Christianity which should per- 
vade and distinguish the membership of 
the Church is emphatically a life, so the 
Christian ministry, in which it may be 
said to culminate, must be regarded as: 
in the first instance a life, and secondarily 
a work. It has to do primarily with a 
condition of being and a course of be- 
havior, and only afterwards with the 
ministrations of service. Not only must 
the two so exist together, but they must 
stand related to each other in the manner 
now indicated; the life from the first 
takes precedence of the work and 

(69) 



70 The Minister a Man Among Men 

throughout must hold the place of pre- 
eminent importance." 

The demands and responsibilities of 
the ministry challenge us to develop to 
the utmost the capacities and the best 
qualities of mind and heart. No other 
calling has within itself such possibilities 
of development and fosters such vital 
relationship of the work to the worker 
as the ministry. That Great Heart of 
the past generation, Bishop Brooks, well 
said: "The Christian ministry is the 
largest field for the growth of a human 
soul that this world offers. In it he 
who is faithful must go on learning more 
and more forever. It is a continual 
climbing which opens continually wider 
prospects. It repeats the experience of 
Christ's disciples, of whom our Lord was 
always making larger men and then 
giving them the larger truth of which 
their enlarged natures had become capa- 
ble." 



The Minister's Personality 71 

Now it is the expression of personality 
which has to do with the minister's 
manners. We are to vitalize, enlarge, 
develop our personalities by the influence, 
not only of the spirit of God from above, 
but also by learning from others and 
from the accumulated experiences and 
wisdom of human society. Let us not 
despise or misunderstand the meaning 
of the term "Good Manners." After 
all, they simply represent the real Christ- 
ian life and charity which ministers, 
above all others, should possess. Dr. 
Witherspoon in his "Letters on Educa- 
tion," while strongly urging the utility 
and importance of polished manners, re- 
marks: "True religion is not only con- 
sistent with, but necessary to, the per- 
fection of true politeness," and fortifies 
his opinion by "a noble sentiment," as 
he calls it, of the Prince of Conti; namely, 
"That worldly politeness is no more than 
an imitation or imperfect copy of Christ- 



72 The Minister a Man Among Men 

ian charity, being the pretense or outward 
appearance of that deference to the 
judgment, and attention to the interests 
of others, which a true Christian has 
as the rule of his life and the disposition 
of his heart." 

Let us at once remove the misappre- 
hension which seems to lodge in the 
minds of many. They have heard so 
much of the hollow, insincere system of 
artificial manners, the false pretensions 
of politeness, that whenever the subject 
is mentioned they take for granted that 
the subject aimed at is that courtly 
polish and punctilious adjustment of 
smiles, bows, dress and minute attentions, 
which form so large a part of the Chester- 
fieldian Code found today generally in 
modern society. 

This is not the thing here suggested. 
The customs of polite society, however, 
include many precepts and suggestions 
which are worthy of the attention of 



The Minister's Personality 73 

even ministers. It may be true, as some 
one has said of Lord Chesterfield's "Let- 
ters to his Son," that they include "The 
morals of a prostitute and the manners 
of a dancing master" but this is no reason 
why we should be prejudiced against 
a subject which associates with it the 
traditions and treatment of an unworthy 
life, and yet a subject which is so impor- 
tant to one's usefulness. Rather we are 
to consider those qualities of heart and 
mind, those graces of the Christian life, 
out of which flow those manners which 
become the Christian gentleman. It is 
easy to look with a sort of contempt on all 
rules of behavior, to affect singularity of 
manner, and to assume that ministers 
are above the ordinary laws of social 
intercourse. Good men sometimes put 
themselves in absurd positions when they 
defy public sentiment and undervalue 
every code of rules whose object is to 
make men act like civilized people. This 



74 The Minister a Man Among Men 

prejudice and affectation, as well as the 
neglect of the amenities of life, are often- 
times due to the obscuring of the fact 
that the growth of Christian life and 
principle in the individual heart is a 
gradual process and not a superhuman or 
spontaneous matter. 

The development of personality 
through right living and the exercise 
of the largest influence for good requires 
unceasing effort. It calls for self-denial, 
prayer and watchfulness. It includes 
numerous duties which cannot be fulfilled 
in all their relations and aspects without 
being made the object of intelligent and 
daily attention. The office of the min- 
istry does not remove from a man pride, 
vanity, selfishness, envy, irritability, the 
habit of slovenly dress, and indolence. 

Another fact to be kept in mind is, 
that the influence of our personality 
cannot be properly brought to bear upon 
others unless we have some knowledge 



The Minister's Personality 75 

of the world. We must take account 
of the laws of social intercourse. We 
must see and study man as he is. The 
book of human nature must be studied 
as well as the Book of revelation. 

We must study men. We should know 
their differences and varieties of tem- 
perament and point of view. We need 
to discern the different motives and the 
many types of character with which we 
have to deal: the slow-witted man, 
following others like a sheep; the man 
with open mind, quick to catch visions 
and to exercise good judgment; the genial 
man, the bilious, the sanguine man, the 
old man and the young, the man bearing 
the heat and burden of the day, the 
obstinate man, the conservative and the 
radical. 

These varied types will probably be 
found within the circle of every congre- 
gation. We will need their cooperation. 
How important then the study and the 



76 The Minister a Man Among Men 

acquisition of those traits of character 
which will qualify for leadership and 
make us "wise as serpents and harmless 
as doves." 

This study is important because the 
world judges the character of a man by 
his manners. Simple, manly manners 
are the indication of a manly and straight- 
forward character. Tennyson was right 
when he wrote: 

"For manners are not idle but the 
fruit of loyal nature and of noble mind." 
And Emerson well said: 

"I have seen manners that make a 
similar impression to personal beauty." 

The average man looks quite as much, 
if not more, to manners as to solid worth. 
He may be a poor judge of talents, 
learning and even religious profession, 
but of easy, mild and genial manners 
every one is a competent judge and, of 
course, is capable of being favorably 
impressed by them. 



The Minister's Personality 77 

It is difficult for merit to secure a 
hearing and to enter the open door of 
usefulness if clothed with the skin of a 
porcupine. Men of ordinary attainments 
and of limited information but of fas- 
cinating and agreeable manners often 
succeed, where men of far higher quali- 
fications, both intellectual and moral, 
but without attractiveness of bearing, 
frequently fail. Is it not also true that 
that which is of intrinsic worth appears 
doubly attractive when presented in a 
pleasing manner? We all recognize that 
the very same words uttered by one 
person may prove offensive and yet when 
spoken by another may be agreeable and 
acceptable. An action performed with 
an assumption of spiritual superiority 
may bring forth denunciations on the 
part of good people and curses by the 
worldly, while the very same action, when 
performed by another of even less talent, 
but with greater suavity and more tact, 



78 The Minister a Man Among Men 

is approved and exercises large influence. 
Edmund Burke puts it strongly, "Man- 
ners are of more importance than laws. 
Upon them, in a great measure, the laws 
depend. The law touches us but here 
and there, and now and then. Manners 
are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, 
exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, 
by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible 
operation, like that of the air we breathe 
in. They give their whole form and 
color to our lives. According to their 
quality, they aid morals; they supply 
them or they totally destroy them." 

We all recognize the value of "personal 
magnetism." But, after all, what is per- 
sonal magnetism but only another name 
for readiness and considerateness and the 
application of the Golden Rule and the 
law of love in our dealings with others? 
Personal magnetism is the product of 
the cultivation of these qualities of mind 
and heart and of their translation into 



The Minister's Personality 79 

words and actions. Some one has pointed 
out that the very word "Parson" means 
"persona," a person who represents the 
church, in whom its ideal is embodied 
or its character illustrated. 

Recognizing the importance of the 
minister's personality and manners, the 
practical question is: "What can we do 
to attain these high ideals and exercise 
the proper influence as ministers of the 
gospel among men?" 

First, by giving attention to the culti- 
vation of those elements of character 
which make for spiritual growth and real 
manhood. Second, by culture of the 
soul for service. Third, by communion 
with God. 

May I remind you that the pastoral 
epistles lay stress upon the minister's 
life? In the letters to Timothy and 
Titus, nearly all the directions given as to 
qualifications that should be sought have 
respect to character. Indeed, out of the 



80 The Minister a Man Among Men 

thirteen or fourteen different qualities 
mentioned, only one has distinct refer- 
ence to the gift of teaching, virtually 
implying that character is the most 
essential thing. 

For the sake of definiteness and brevity 
may I suggest to you the A. B.C. elements 
which make for the proper growth of the 
minister, in clerical manners? A — Adap- 
tation, B — Brotherliness, C — Courtesy, 
D — Dignity, E — Enthusiasm, F — Fear- 
lessness, G — Gentleness. 

A — Adaptation 

The modern science and art of teach- 
ing make much of the principle of adap- 
tation. The courses of study in the 
Sunday School are planned from the 
standpoint of the child's spiritual needs 
or the adaptation of scriptural material 
to the growing intelligence of the child. 

The principle of Adaptation empha- 
sizes the necessity of proceeding from the 



The Minister's Personality 81 

known to the unknown, of meeting the 
pupil on his own plane of understanding. 
Is not this very thing needed on the part 
of the Christian minister in his dealings 
with men and women? Does not the 
great apostle suggest that the thoughtless 
and inconsiderate life of the minister is 
a grievous stumbling block and does he 
not lay down the rule: "All things are 
lawful for me but all things are not ex- 
pedient"; "All things are lawful for me 
but all things edify not." A large part 
of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians 
deals with this question of adaptation 
and the principle thus laid down is of 
very wide application. It bears upon 
the intercourse of the minister with the 
world, on his tactful dealings with men, 
on the question of recreation and amuse- 
ments and on the far larger question of 
meeting men on their own ground, look- 
ing at questions from the other man's 
point of view. Here it is well to follow 



82 The Minister a Man Among Men 

the maxim: "Brethren, be not children 
in understanding, howbeit, in malice be 
ye children, but in understanding, be 
men." 

B — Brotherliness 

By this I mean human sympathy, sin- 
cerity, unselfishness which will lead a 
man to deny himself the pleasure of the 
study or of interesting literature for the 
sake of humble service to individuals. 
It is easy nowadays to make a fetish of 
the word "Brotherhood"; to set up an 
idolatry of books, of ideas and theories of 
social service, and yet forget and deny 
the ties of humanity. It will not do to 
have simply a vague enthusiasm for 
humanity. We must have a growing 
interest in the individual man. The 
minister must further guard against the 
vice of professionalism, of examining and 
criticizing conditions in the cold dry light 
of intellectualism or of a morbid senti- 



The Minister's Personality 83 

mentalism. Brotherliness can only de- 
velop through genuine interest in others. 
The best guarantee of its growth is 
human-heartedness. "I used to think," 
writes Hawthorne, "I could imagine all 
passions and all feelings and states of the 
heart and mind but how little did I know. 
Indeed, we are but shadows. We are 
not endowed with real life, and all that 
seems most real is but the thinnest sub- 
stance of a dream 'til the heart be 
touched. That touch creates us. Then 
we begin to be. Thereby we are beings 
of reality and inheritors of eternity." 

When there was a smallpox epidemic 
in Reading, Pa., years ago, Dr. McCauley 
showed the genuine brotherliness of a 
minister of religion when, at the risk 
of his life and of his family, he ministered 
to all sorts and conditions of men, scores 
of whom were not even connected with 
his congregation, who were taken down 
with the dread disease. 



84 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Little wonder that after several genera- 
tions have passed by his name is still a 
household name in hundreds of homes 
and held in reverence by the city of 
Reading. 

Another pastoral side in his life re- 
veals the meaning of brotherliness. In 
a home of luxury, for several years a 
child was bedfast. Week in and week 
out the pastor visited in that home and 
prayed with the child and the parents, 
likewise in the poorer sections of the city 
was he found in loving personal touch 
and sympathy with a family where sick- 
ness and poverty prevailed for more than 
a year. These are typical instances of 
his faithful pastoral labors. As the late 
Dr. Charles S. Home of London points 
out, the need of the day is not Elijah, 
the uncompromising individualist, re- 
mote, inaccessible, ascetic, but Elisha, 
the homely, friendly man whose place 
was in the hearts and homes of the people. 



The Minister's Personality 85 

This is the new order of the ministry! 
The human, social, sympathetic minister 
who knows how people live, who enters 
into their joys and shares their occupa- 
tions; who instinctively discerns their 
privations and will not see them de- 
frauded of their rights. 

C — Courtesy 

If courtesy is politeness springing from 
kindly feeling, it should be so cultivated 
as to become an habitual attitude of the 
minister. 

Courtesy is the ozone of ministerial life. 
It is that air and manner which is more 
expressive than words. It is the practice 
of civility, of putting one's self in place 
of the other man and so interpreting and 
ministering to life. An eminent business 
man, the son of a former Professor in this 
Seminary, whose training has been in the 
greatest mercantile establishment in this 
country, has said: "I have learned that 



86 The Minister a Man Among Men 

courtesy is the first law of trade and that 
it implies and includes politeness, atten- 
tion, solicitude, sympathy, kindness, pa- 
tience, cheerfulness, earnestness, loyalty, 
faith." If this be true in the world of 
business, how much more is it true in 
the work of the ministry. 

Above all men, the minister must be so 
courteous and affable that he is easily 
approachable; possessing that happy fac- 
ulty of placing every one at ease with him 
in conversation. The minister must visit 
from house to house, he must meet all 
classes of persons on the most important 
of all subjects. To him come the per- 
plexed, the doubting, the timid, the 
tempted, the ignorant and desponding. 
As counselor and guide, as friend and 
companion, as the steward of the myster- 
ies of grace, as an under shepherd, as a 
watchman upon the walls of Zion, giving 
the message of warning as well as of cheer, 
the minister soon discovers that in all 



The Minister's Personality 87 

these relations gracious and genuine 
courtesy wins. It is not so much the 
great crises of life, as the daily experi- 
ences, which go to make up the sum of 
the minister's usefulness. The poet has 
well said: 

"Hail! Ye small, sweet courtesies of life, 
For smooth do ye make the road of it." 
Do not make the mistake of assuming 
that the courteous, tactful man, like the 
poet, must be born and cannot be made. 
Doubtless, temperament has something 
to do with the development of courtesy, 
but it is not true that it is always innate 
and never an accomplishment. The 

grace of God includes the possibility of 
the gift and large use of tactful courtesy. 
It is a question of requisite care and cul- 
ture. We can well agree with Dr. J. H. 
Jowett, who says: "I believe that clumsy 
people can become tactful and that folk 
who are brusque and morbid can become 
gracious and courteous and that the in- 



88 The Minister a Man Among Men 

different and inconsiderate can become 
thoughtful and sympathetic. There is 
no excuse for our tactlessness and if 
even, temperamentally, we are tactless, 
it is our urgent duty to change it by the 
ministries of discipline and grace." 

D — Dignity 

We often speak of some one as a "gen- 
tleman of the old school." Does this not 
express the happy combination of cour- 
tesy and dignity so eminently becoming 
to the minister? There are men who 
think the secret of social success is found 
in being a "good fellow"; who are always 
joking, telling funny stories, turning 
everything to wit. Of course, humor has 
its place. Without it, the seriousness of 
life which constantly confronts the min- 
ister would be a burden sometimes too 
great to be borne, but ministerial wit 
comes dangerously near to moral weak- 
ness. Let there be plenty of laughter 



The Minister's Personality 89 

and a genuine, childlike enjoyment of 
the proper things of life, but never a loss 
of reverence, never a ridicule of the 
scriptures by unseemly jokes; never the 
telling of stories with a double meaning. 
Here again, Dr. McCauley, with his 
Scotch-Irish wit, at times indulged in 
pleasantries which lightened and lifted, 
but there was always a dignity of manner 
which never for a moment caused one to 
lose respect for the man, there was in 
him a happy commingling of gracious 
courtesy and noble dignity. 

True dignity means habitual self-con- 
trol. It excludes uncontrolled outbreaks 
of temper. Perhaps ministers may be 
said to be peculiarly exposed to the 
temptation of losing their tempers in 
controversy. They feel deeply when 
their opinions are questioned or attacked. 
So much the more is there need for a 
double guard. No one loses more in 
the esteem of others and in his influence 



90 The Minister a Man Among Men 

for good than a minister when he lowers 
the dignity of his office by loss of self- 
control and self respect. 

E — Enthusiasm 

Let us remember that the word ety- 
mologically means "Having God within." 
Maurice speaks of the Christian enthu- 
siast as the "God intoxicated man." 
One's experience with God is the meas- 
ure of one's power with men. You re- 
member that two of the three Hebrew 
words which are translated "prophet" 
mean "To see." The man who has 
spiritual insight and a vision of the thing 
to be done will have a sustained enthu- 
siasm which makes it possible, amidst 
trials and difficulties, to persevere and to 
accomplish something worth while. 

I suppose that at the time of ordina- 
tion the sense of conviction of a divine 
call and the greatness of the task before 
the minister arouses enthusiasm. Now 



The Minister's Personality 91 

it is this enthusiasm which must be main- 
tained and kept fresh through the long 
years of ministerial work. We have a 
noble example in St. Paul, who main- 
tained the enthusiasm he had at his call, 
as is evidenced in the Acts of the Apostles, 
and from the contents of every letter 
that he wrote. Reading his life and 
words one is impressed, not only with 
his sense of responsibility which con- 
tinues always to be fresh and keen, but 
also with his abiding possession of divine 
help and strength to meet new and con- 
stantly changing circumstances. Paul 
brought his enthusiasm to bear upon 
every detail of ministerial work, whether 
it involved doing something for Onesimus, 
as in his letter to Philemon, or writing to 
the church at Rome; whether visiting 
from house to house or counseling the 
elders at Ephesus he acted as if he felt 
he was obeying a divine call. 



92 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Here is one secret of enthusiasm, viz. : 
recognizing the greatness of the task and 
the importance of its details, together 
with throwing all our energy into it. 
Another secret is— the conviction and 
assured confidence of divine guidance 
and strength in persevering effort. From 
this point of view faith cannot be sep- 
arated from enthusiasm. Indeed, en- 
thusiasm is faith in action. It is letting 
God work in us and working as if every- 
thing depended upon us. Paul expressed 
it writing to the Philippians, when he 
said: "I can do all things through Him 
who constantly strengthens me." And 
to Timothy, referring to his first defense 
and the fact that he was forsaken, he 
said: "The Lord stood by me and 
strengthened me." 

Years ago I had the good fortune to 
hear Bishop Phillips Brooks speak in Bos- 
ton. His sincerity and enthusiasm car- 
ried conviction to each one in his audi- 



The Minister's Personality 93 

ence. He had a good thing. He believed 
in it with his whole heart. His enthusi- 
asm was contagious and he made one 
feel that he had tested what he was talk- 
ing about and that one wanted what he 
had. His intense and sustained enthu- 
siasm made him the great preacher and 
teacher. In personal conversation and 
bearing, enthusiasm alone will carry 
conviction and persuade to action. 

The minister has a task that challenges 
all his powers and if a vision of the work 
grips him, he cannot fail to be enthusiastic 
and bring every faculty of his being into 
action. We need constantly to recognize 
the truth that God works in and through 
our human personalities and that, with 
Him, we can conquer, and yet that the 
growth of His kingdom is conditioned by 
our activity. 

"Move to the fore. 
God himself waits, and must wait, till thou 
come. 



94 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Men are God's prophets though ages lie dumb. 
Halts the Christ-Kingdom, with conquest so 

near? 
Thou art the cause, then, thou man at the 

rear. 
Move to the fore." 

F — Fearlessness 

The quality of courage is indispensable 
to the minister. We need not despair 
if we are naturally of a timid disposition. 
If we let the grace of God take hold 
of our souls we can become fearless. Dr. 
Charles Sylvester Home in "The Ro- 
mance of Preaching" gives us a portrait 
of John Knox. He united in himself 
the statesmanship of Calvin and the fiery 
eloquence of Savonarola. Dr. Home 
says that Knox insisted that he was a 
coward. There is no doubt that he was 
drawn into his eventful work against his 
own will and inclination. Could there 
have been a more heroic soul in holding 
out for God's cause against a crafty 



The Minister's Personality 95 

hierarchy, a turbulent nobility and an 
insidious theology? The destiny of Scot- 
land was in the scales and, under God, 
its freedom depended upon the fact that 
John Knox was no sentimental and 
effeminate champion of the new doctrine. 
We are all familiar with the clever and 
insistent efforts of Queen Mary; her 
flattery, her shrinking, her laughter, her 
tears. But she could not move the fear- 
less Knox. History has it on record that, 
as John Knox passed out from the royal 
presence, the whisper went around: "He 
is not afraid." Whereupon he replied, 
with a reasonably merry countenance: 
"Wherefore should the pleasing face of 
a gentlewoman affray me? I have looked 
upon the faces of many angry men and 
yet have not been affrayed beyond meas- 
ure." It was like Knox to pray: "O 
God, give me death or give me Scotland." 
And what an appropriate sentiment for 
his grave — "Here lies one who never 
feared the face of man." 



96 The Minister a Man Among Men 

You can be sure that you will be 
tempted to be cowardly, to yield an easy 
acquiescence to the dominating will of 
some financial magnate of the congrega- 
tion or to the persuasive wiles of some 
prosperous, luxurious and ease-loving 
family. Fidelity to your trust requires 
fearlessness to proclaim the message, to 
stand by Christian principles and to 
yield neither to stern looks nor to soft 
speeches. 

I well recall the fearlessness of Dr. 
McCauley in the Prohibition Campaign 
in Pennsylvania, 1889, when it required 
courage to take a stand in the congrega- 
tion where the majority of the men were, 
by their environment and by their habits 
of life, opposed to the cause of temper- 
ance. Dr. McCauley stood for the prin- 
ciple of total abstinence for the individual 
and Prohibition for the State and de- 
clared his convictions both in public and 
in private; and long before that, in the 



The Minister's Personality 97 

year 1846 in his pastorate in Middletown, 
Maryland, he spoke courageously in 
behalf of the Temperance cause. 

To be a leader requires the courage of 
one's convictions. You must lead in 
thought and in your attitude to great 
reform; you must be in advance of the 
crowd, and be aggressive in pulling down 
strongholds of evil. The Bible is full 
of appeals and demands for this fearless 
life. "Be not fearful, but believing." 
"Fear not, for I am with thee; be not 
dismayed for I am thy God." 

To do this you must set a steadfast 
face against sin and fear nothing but 
God. You must apply the antiseptic 
treatment by keeping your spiritual life 
in good condition. Falling below par 
in spiritual things will make you sus- 
ceptible especially to the bacteria of fear 
and evil. The old phrase runs: "The 
Christian's doubt is the Devil's oppor- 
tunity." 



98 The Minister a Man Among Men 

G — Gentleness 

Closely allied to Fearlessness is the 
spirit of Gentleness. The divine word is : 
"Thy gentleness hath made me great," 
and the Apostolic injunction reads : "The 
Lord's servant must not strive, but be 
gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbear- 
ing, in meekness correcting them that 
oppose themselves." 

This Christian grace is in contrast to 
the contentious insistence on one's rights, 
for the natural man is always ready to 
assert his rights, rather than to obey 
the law of love. The minister is an 
official but his office is that of servant 
and brother, rather than an officer clothed 
with human rights. 

What is the story of the medieval 
Church but a narrative of the tyranny of 
clergymen who, for hundreds of years, 
little by little, compacted themselves into 
a hierarchy, developing into the most 
appalling, intolerable despotism that the 



The Minister's Personality 99 

world has ever known. Laymen were 
crowded out of the place appointed them 
by the great Head of the Church. They 
were allowed no voice whatever in the 
government of the Church. These min- 
isters were men of like passions with our- 
selves. In their hearts was many a noble 
aspiration and in their lives they did 
many noble deeds, but ambition, pride 
of place, lust of power, darkened the light 
of their ministry and made it easy for 
them to formulate plausible policies and 
present specious reasons as a vindication 
of their acts. 

We surfer today from the despotism of 
the past and Protestantism is not exempt 
from the pride of office. Dr. Charles E. 
Jefferson well says: "If one were to go 
up and down our Protestant world, not- 
ing carefully the sins of clergymen, would 
he not write in his list such as these: 
autocratic manner, imperious temper, 
consequential air, dictatorial disposition, 



100 The Minister a Man Among Men 

self-assertion, hankering for distinction, 
ambition for higher place, arrogant pre- 
sumption, refined but earthly worldliness? 
Every man has in him the elements out 
of which Rome built a despotism which 
enslaved the world." 

Peter, in writing to the pastors in his 
day, said: "Tend the flock of God, not 
as lording it over the charge allotted to 
you, but making yourselves examples to 
the flock." In other words, our power 
is given us to use in the path of service 
and in the spirit of humility. It was this 
truth which our Lord constantly empha- 
sized in his teachings and in his relations 
with the twelve. But we need ever to 
remember the dangerous ground upon 
which we stand when we find that it is 
possible to have the mind filled with 
thoughts of self-abnegation and unselfish- 
ness, and at the same time, as a result of 
sin, be dreaming of pre-eminence and 
power. 



The Minister's Personality 101 

Many a time you will be tempted, when 
attacked, to defend yourself; when mis- 
represented, to explain. Better not apol- 
ogize nor explain but let your life speak 
for itself. For the sake of the growth 
of your denomination or the kingdom 
you may be put in a position where you 
should help to start other churches and 
allow credit to be given even to others. 
There is no grace which you will need to 
exercise more than that of humility and 
the royal rule of seeing or doing nothing 
which would make any one uncomfortable. 

Dr. McCauley began his pastorate in 
Reading, when there was decided and 
out-spoken opposition to an English con- 
gregation and when the mother church 
repudiated her promises of financial sup- 
port, but he led his people on peacefully 
and there was never a quarrel between 
the two congregations. 

He aided in securing as pastor of the 
First Church Dr. Bausman, and for more 



102 The Minister a Man Among Men 

than thirty years these two brethren, 
differing greatly in temperament, lab- 
bored together as brothers and most 
intimate friends. In a very real sense, 
Dr. McCauley was the father of Reformed 
Church extension in Reading, which led 
to the establishment of thirteen con- 
gregations before his death. And yet 
he cheerfully accredited the place of 
leadership to another. By his coopera- 
tion, his self-denial and self-effacement, 
in sending out hundreds of his members 
to new congregations, he manifested the 
true spirit of the Christian minister, and 
in it all his gentleness made him great. 

Summing up all these elements of 
character : Adaptation, Brotherliness, 
Courtesy, Dignity, Enthusiasm, Fear- 
lessness, Gentleness, we find that they 
fuse together into one great motive power 
of the ministry. 

Do we not see this in the teaching of 
St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians? 



The Minister's Personality 103 

Chapters 12, 13, 14 have one subject — 
viz. : The endowment of the Church and 
its purposes. Indeed, in the twelfth 
Chapter, the unity of the Church is as- 
serted, coupled with the prevailing 
thought of the diversity of gifts and 
endowments, services and activities. The 
fourteenth Chapter refers to speaking 
with tongues and the understanding, 
prophecy, praying with the spirit, etc., 
but while Paul magnifies the gift of God 
and our responsibility for the right use of 
diversified gifts and talents, he gives the 
heart of his message in the thirteenth 
Chapter when he says: "I proceed to 
show you a way, by all comparison the 
best" — and that way means a determin- 
ing and impelling and controlling prin- 
ciple and motive. 

The wonderful thirteenth Chapter is 
an inspired definition of love. Surely if 
ministers of the gospel were to read and 
give themselves to meditation daily on 



104 The Minister a Man Among Men 

this pathway of supreme excellence and 
power, their lives would be transformed 
and the work of the Church would be 
immeasurably advanced. 

The second method enriching person- 
ality is suggested by the general term 
"culture." I recognize that the elements 
of character which we have been discussing 
have reference to the culture of the soul 
and are included in the general idea of 
culture, but I desire to call your attention 
to an aspect of culture not included in 
that which we have already considered. 
It goes without saying, that there are 
great intellectual demands made upon 
the minister and that, for the purpose 
of an efficient ministry, "as iron sharp- 
eneth iron," so great books must be read 
to quicken the mind and put iron into 
the mental constitution. Idea and illus- 
trations must be acquired by a wide range 
of reading. 



The Minister's Personality 105 

No man can remain long in the pas- 
torate, particularly in any one field, 
without giving attendance to reading 
and without being a student in the real 
sense of the term. 

Dr. McCauley could not have remained 
thirty-six years in one pastorate, preach- 
ing to a congregation whose membership 
included at times as many as twenty 
lawyers, had he not spent hours of toil 
in his study. It is a simple record of fact 
to say that with the cares of a large family 
upon him he found it necessary, in order 
to secure quiet and hours of study, to 
labor constantly late at night. 

While we dare not neglect this intel- 
lectual culture, I wish rather to say a 
word in behalf of "Culture for Service." 
The message of the pulpit, the hours of 
study, the activities of the week, must 
ever aim at mental and spiritual un- 
selfishness. There is great danger in the 
intellectual life of ministers, under the 



106 The Minister a Man Among Men 

plea of a great and holy work, to be lovers 
simply of themselves. College and sem- 
inary education easily engenders intel- 
lectual pride and the exclusive taste of 
a cultivated class, and many a minister 
follows his taste and seeks companionship 
in his books or associates almost exclu- 
sively with people who love books and 
have tastes in common with him. 

How easy to pursue truth for itself 
without any regard for its effect upon 
men. Beware of becoming more inter- 
ested in books than in lives, in theories 
and speculations about the truth than 
in truth as a food of life. Rather by 
far nurture your soul by the strength 
developed in exercising your knowledge 
for the good of others. 

Is it not a significant fact that every 
truth of revelation has its practical bear- 
ing? A fair test of truth is its ability, 
upon being preached and taught, to 
quicken, comfort and purify the souls 



The Minister's Personality 107 

of men. Without this, all intellectual 
efforts are mere speculations of the study, 
idle theories of mental gymnasts. 

7 plead for spiritual culture for service. 

Let us recognize that the test of spir- 
ituality is service and that service is the 
logical and lofty means to spirituality. 

In the fifteenth Chapter of John's 
gospel our Lord unfolds the relation of 
intimacy in which he would remain with 
his disciples. It is an organic relation — 
vital, like that of the vine to its branches. 

The striking fact in that passage is that 
almost every verse tells us that the 
branches are in the vine for the sake of 
the fruit and are allowed to remain there 
only on condition of fruit-bearing. 

We are God's disciples and His joy 
is in us only in proportion as our lives 
are enriched for the sake of others. 

Work, whether in the study, search 
for truth, whether in the written Word of 
revelation or in God's great outdoors — 



108 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Work, in the homes of people, in the 
community, in the influences everywhere 
set in motion — Work! This is health 
and growth and life! 

And may I add that the richest experi- 
ence and development of spiritual culture 
come in ministering to the individual. 
Here our knowledge must be personal, 
experimental and practical. Here we 
discover that intellectual endeavor does 
not necessarily lead to right conduct. 
We soon learn the fact that our conduct 
and the conduct of others is far below 
the plane of our thought. We know, 
vastly better than we do, the things that 
are right and true. Thus, in dealing 
with the individual and in developing 
constant interest in individuals, we learn 
the function of good teaching; viz.: 
The cultivation of the feeling powers of 
the soul. 

Our pulpit methods will change. We 
will learn the mistake of making the 



. 



The Minister's Personality 109 

appeal simply to the intellect; we will 
discover that we must touch the heart 
and the conscience in order to secure 
right action. 

Jesus taught that it is not what we 
know or feel but what we do that makes 
life worth while. And so in the culture 
of the intellect, the feelings and the will 
for service among others do we attain 
the right character for ourselves. 

Lastly, but first in importance, and 
first as a method of personal enrichment, 
and helpfulness for others, we come to 
consider the question of communion with 
God, or personal and intercessory prayer. 

For the Christian minister, character 
and culture are conditioned by his fellow- 
ship with the unseen. The secret of 
power, of the achievement of a genuine 
saintly character, is the same in every 
age. It is with God. Men of all ages, 
who have done great things, and men of 
today who are doing great things, disclose 



110 The Minister a Man Among Men 

to us that their fellowship is in the secret 
place of power. Dr. Jowett in suggesting 
how to avoid the perils of the preacher 
indicates our possible enrichment. He 
writes "By studious and reverent regard 
to the supreme commonplaces of the 
spiritual life, we must assiduously attain 
to the culture of our souls. We must 
sternly and systematically take time for 
prayer and for the devotional reading 
of the Word of God. We must appoint 
private seasons for the deliberate and 
personal appropriation of the Divine 
Word, for self-examination in the pres- 
ence of its warnings, for self-humbling 
in the presence of its judgments, for 
self-heartening in the presence of its 
promises, and for self -interrogation in the 
presence of its glorious hopes." "We 
are great only as we are God-possessed; 
and scrupulous appointments in the upper 
room with the Master will prepare us for 
the trials and hardships of the most 



The Minister's Personality 111 

strenuous campaign. We must, there- 
fore, hold firmly and steadily to this 
primary principle, that of all things that 
need doing, this need is supreme, to live 
in intimate fellowship with God." "Let 
us steadily hold a reasonable sense of 
values and assign each appointed duty 
to its legitimate place, and in any ap- 
pointment of values this would surely 
be the initial judgment, that nothing 
can be well done if we drift away from 
God. Neglected spiritual fellowship 
means futility all along the road." 

Meditation should be associated with 
prayer. Meditation is an invigorating 
heart tonic. It is both a medicine and 
a food. It is the strong and steady grasp 
of eternal truths, holding them up in their 
relations and their sweep, holding them 
before the mind until they become vivid, 
all-possessing realities. The spirit be- 
comes serene and transfigured when we 
spend moments on the mount. 



112 The Minister a Man Among Men 

This discipline of the soul gives us the 
vision glorious and only as we have 
"the light that shone never on land or 
sea" can we become a blessing in our 
ministry. Perhaps the great peril and 
temptation that besets us in the changed 
conditions of our times is the failure 
to give large enough place to prayer and 
the devotional study of the Word. We 
meet it in the home and we meet it in 
the study and personal life of the min- 
ister. 

As a theological student I shall never 
forget the sense of shock I experienced in 
attending, for the first time, a large 
church body and in being placed in the 
same room in a hotel with two or three 
ministers, to notice their failure to kneel 
in prayer night and morning. Some one 
may say they had prayer aplenty in the 
church, but this very insidious and uncon- 
scious appeal of the minister's work must 
be reckoned with. 



The Minister's Personality 113 

Nothing can take the place of daily, 
personal prayer and of intercessions in 
secret. This highest culture requires pur- 
pose and method and regularity. It is 
tremendously difficult but its rewards 
are in proportion, for as John Eliot, the 
great apostle to the Indians, said long 
ago: "Prayer and pains through faith 
in Jesus Christ, can accomplish any- 
thing." Of our Master we read: "In 
the days of his flesh He offered up prayers 
and supplications with strong cryings and 
tears." 

We cannot enter into the triumph of 
the ministry unless through fellowship 
with Christ. "That I may know Him 
and the power of his resurrection and the 
fellowship of his suffering," says Paul. 
"Our fellowship is with the Father and 
with his Son, Jesus Christ," says John. 

If we are to fill our place among men 
as the representatives of Christ, his 
witnesses sharing his life, we must keep 



114 The Minister a Man Among Men 

in daily and constant association with 
Him, and so will courtesy, patience, 
courage, gentleness, considerateness, for- 
bearance and good temper and love and 
all the strong and attractive graces grow 
in us. For they are fruits, the natural 
and spontaneous growth of communion 
with the Lord. 

Let us have and aim to attain high 
ideals of the ministry and then we will 
be able to fulfill that description of the 
work of the ministry which President 
Woodrow Wilson set forth several years 
ago: 

"What is it that the minister should 
try to do? It seems to me that the 
minister should try to remind his fellow- 
men in everything that he does and in 
everything that he says, that eternity 
is not future but present; that there is 
in every transaction of life a line that 
connects it with eternity, and that our 
lives are but the visible aspect of the 



The Minister's Personality 115 

experiences of our spirits upon the earth; 
that we are living here as spirits; that 
our whole conduct is to be influenced 
by things that are invisible, of which 
we must be constantly reminded lest our 
eyes should be gluttonously filled with 
the things that are visible; that we should 
be reminded that there lurks everywhere, 
not ungraciously and with forbidden 
mien, but graciously and with salvation 
on its countenance, the image and the 
memory of Christ, going a little journey 
through the earth to remind men of the 
fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood 
of men, of the journey that all spirits 
are taking to the land that is unseen 
and to which they are all to come." 



THE MINISTER AS A MAN IN HIS 
RELATIONS TO AND WITH OTHERS 

A Pastor 
(Dr. John G. Holland) 
He knows but Jesus Christ, the crucified. 
Ah, little recks the worldling of the worth 
Of such a man as this upon the earth ! 
Who gives himself — his all — to make men wise 
In doctrines which his life exemplifies. 
The years pass on, and a great multitude 
Still find in him a character whose light 
Shines round him like a candle in the night; 
And recognize a presence so benign 
That to the godless even it seems divine. 
He bears his people's love within his heart, 
And envies no man, whatsoe'er his part, 
His church's record grows, and grows again, 
With names of saintly women-folks and men. 
And many a worldling, many a wayward youth, 
He counts among the trophies of his truth. 
O, happy man; There is no man like thee 
Worn out in service of humanity. 
And dead at last, 'mid universal tears, 
Thy name a fragrance in the speaker's breath, 
And thy divine example life in death. 

The test of a minister is his ability to save souls. 
This is the di vines t work in the world. No other 
calling lends itself so readily to the winning 
of souls. "He that winneth souls is wise." 



THE MINISTER AS A MAN IN HIS 

RELATIONS TO AND WITH 

OTHERS 

Lecture Two 

Some time ago an article appeared in 
the American Magazine entitled "Is the 
preacher a Molly-Coddle?' ' In the 
course of the article the writer makes the 
following statement: "Among strong, 
steadfast, manly business men, as well 
as among the athletes of the baseball 
and football field, there is a kind of belief 
or feeling that all preachers belong, in some 
measure, to the 'Molly-Coddle' class." 

We recognize that this is an extreme 
statement and that oftentimes the man 
of the world regards anything beyond 
his own material circle or outside the 
range of his experience as belonging to 
the effeminate and weak side of life. 
Nevertheless, it is worth while to ponder 
such a statement, even though we finally 
discard it as unfair and extreme. 

(119) 



120 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Current criticisms of ministers contain 
some measure of truth. On the one 
hand, the ministerial training and the 
fact that ministers are not called upon 
to give an "accounting" of their work, 
in the business sense of the term, has a 
tendency to make them lax, flabby, leth- 
argic and impracticable. On the other 
hand, the calling of the ministry offers 
the finest opportunity for that combina- 
tion of strength and gentleness which is 
the fruit of the finest piety and a char- 
acteristic of genuine manliness. 

The minister of today, as never before, 
can bring a world of heavenly ideals and 
inspirations into the life of the common 
day. The demands made upon him put 
iron into his blood, vision into his ideals, 
energy into his activities and greater 
determination into his will. The words 
of Kipling surely apply to the preacher: 

"Go to your work and be strong, 
Halting not in your ways, 



The Minister in Relation to Others 121 

Balking the end half won, 

For an instant dole of praise. 
Stand to your work and be wise, certain of 

word and pen, 
Who are neither children nor gods, 

But men in a world of men." 

For the minister to be a man among 
men and to sustain the proper relations, 
it is important 

First, that he sternly apply himself 
to the problem of self-discipline. He 
must conscientiously set before himself 
definite aims and a standard of action 
and efficient study of human nature. 
These aims and standards will help him 
to form correct habits and to make his 
work increasingly effective. 

A study of the lives of successful men 
of affairs and of efficiency in business 
shows the value of putting down in 
definite form, maxims and guides of action 
for the formation of right habits and the 
development of character. You remem- 



122 The Minister a Man Among Men 

ber that General Washington compiled a 
code of morals and manners, which still 
exists in a manuscript in his own hand- 
writing, entitled: "Rules for behaviour in 
company and conversation." Note a 
few of them: 

(1) Every action in company ought to 
be with some sign of respect to those 
present. 

(2) Be not hasty to believe evil reports 
to the disparagement of any. 

(3) Speak no injurious words, neither 
in jest nor in earnest. 

(4) Scoff at none although they give 
occasion. 

(5) Speak no evil of the absent for it 
is unjust. 

(6) Be not angry at table whatever 
happens and if you have reason to be 
so, show it not. Put on a cheerful coun- 
tenance, especially if there be strangers, 
for good humor makes one dish of meat 
a feast. 



The Minister in Relation to Others 123 

(7) Labor to keep alive in your breast 
that little spark of celestial fire called 
conscience. 

Benjamin Franklin might have become 
the man he was without the elaborate 
rules and maxims which he laid down for 
his guidance. But they helped instead 
of hindered, and the sayings in Poor 
Richard's Almanack, applying to every- 
day life, exercise an influence even to this 
day. 

That prince of merchants who has 
revolutionized business methods is fond 
of summarizing, in the form of brief rules 
and statements, correct principles and 
methods which lead to success. Not 
long ago Mr. Wanamaker, in one of his 
editorials in a newspaper advertisement, 
made some admirable statements which 
apply to the minister who desires to be 
a genuine man and a true merchantman 
of heavenly goods: 

"An unsuccessful clerk or business 
man does not need to look far for the 



124 The Minister a Man Among Men 

cause of his trouble. It is generally in 
himself or herself. It may be one of 
this dozen of little things that are not 
little things: 

1. He forgets that his worth is mani- 
fest by what he produces in management 
or sales. 

2. He finds excuses for not doing 
instead of finding ways to do what should 
be done. 

3. The world goes ahead in almost 
every direction, and he keeps on the 
humdrum turnpike where somebody will 
have to pay the tolls. 

4. He is not observant, accurate or 
thoughtful. 

5. He is sailing by the broken compass 
of chance. 

6. He flatters himself by comparing 
himself in his own mirror instead of 
with others that have passed him in the 
race. 

7. He thinks nobody notices that he 
has fallen behind. 



The Minister in Relation to Others 125 

8. He does not love his work as he 
used to, and therefore his enthusiasms 
have been lost. 

9. He puts off too many things until 
tomorrow. 

10. He is unconscious of being idle 
much of his time, and lets the day go by 
lacking results he could have attained. 

11. His lack of thoroughness blocks 
his leadership. 

12. However honorable, he fails to 
realize that his example affects others." 

You remember the description which 
St. Paul gives of himself both as a Christ- 
ian minister and as a Christian man: 
"Not that I have already obtained or 
am already made perfect but I press on, 
if so be that I may lay hold on that for 
which also I was laid hold on by Christ 
Jesus." 

In the ministry, contentment with 
ourselves or our achievements is fatal. 
St. Paul's description is a perfect picture 



126 The Minister a Man Among Men 

of the strenuous life and to that life we 
are pledged. Goethe's line is "Who 
grasps the moment as it flies, he is the 
real man." 

Note briefly a half dozen factors which 
are fundamental for personal character 
and one's influence on others: 

1. Decision of character is necessary 
to successful accomplishment either in 
study or in action. 

The college educated man, if he has 
profited by disciplinary studies, has cul- 
tivated the power of habitual concen- 
tration of mind on any one subject that 
may be presented to him. Decision of 
character is not simply courage and 
perseverance in the accomplishment of 
one's subject but it is also that ability 
to give one's self unreservedly to the 
work of the moment, turning neither 
to the right nor to the left. It means 
firmness, constancy of purpose and clear- 
ness of vision as well as the courage of 
one's convictions. 



The Minister in Relation to Others 127 

Decision of character will prevent a 
man from "dawdling," as Sir Walter 
Scott used to call it; wasting of time, 
whether in idle reading or in doing unnec- 
essary things or in constantly postponing 
a decision. "Ever learning and never 
able to come to a knowledge of the truth." 

I have never forgotten a conversation 
with the late Geo. F. Baer, President 
of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- 
road. It occurred in the first year of 
my ministry. Speaking of the large 
number of subjects which come up for 
consideration before business men and 
the need of giving instant direction, Mr. 
Baer said: "Come to a decision quickly, 
after you have looked at the subject 
from various points of view, then stick 
to your decision and go ahead." 

The minister is to be enterprising, 
alert, decisive — surrendering himself to 
the work. This calls for a happy com- 
bination of knowledge, zeal and dis- 



128 The Minister a Man Among Men 

cretion, wide sympathy, keen but cool 
judgment, alertness and a spirit of hope- 
fulness and enthusiasm which convinces 
and persuades. 

Decision of character will lead you to 
stick to the right; to choose between 
higher and lower values, between the 
less important and more important thing. 
Your work, like the proverbial woman's 
work in the home, is never done. It 
is a question of choice in the doing of 
a multitude of things and the man who 
is firm and sympathetic, persevering 
and energetic, deliberate and wise in 
plans and indefatigable in execution, will 
secure results where the timid, irresolute, 
procrastinating man will fail. 

2. Punctuality. Closely allied with 
decision of character is the habit of being 
punctual. This means promptness in 
keeping engagements and in attending 
to work. On many a business man's 
desk you will find the motto: "Do it 
now." 



The Minister in Relation to Others 129 

For five years I was associated with 
Dr. Charles F. McCauley. This fellow- 
ship began when he was seventy years 
of age. During that period of time a 
marked characteristic of his was a careful 
planning so as to meet every engagement 
promptly. He was always on hand to 
see that the church services began on 
time. If a call came to visit the sick 
or information was given concerning a 
new family, the duty was attended to 
promptly. Notwithstanding the infirmi- 
ties of age, his correspondence received 
prompt attention. 

In these later years I have had large 
experience in a general church position 
with hundreds of ministers. It may be 
surprising to you, but nevertheless true, 
that you can often determine the secret 
of a man's efficiency and his ability to 
do a large amount of work by his prompt- 
ness in answering letters. The man who 
is constantly putting off things, instead 



130 The Minister a Man Among Men 

of attending to them promptly, develops 
a weakness of character which inevitably 
leads to loss and inefficiency. Coopera- 
tion, or, as it is called in college and busi- 
ness circles, "Team Work," is essential 
in the conduct of the church's work and 
unless one is prompt in attending to his 
work and in keeping his promises, and 
punctual in meeting his engagements, he 
cannot hope to inspire others with con- 
fidence or to secure their activity in the 
cause in which he himself is interested. 

The manifold duties of a minister's 
calling make it impossible for him to 
wait upon moods or states of feeling for 
doing his work. It is only by prompt 
and continuous application to the duty 
of the hour that the minister can hope 
to be a "workman that needeth not to 
be ashamed." 

3. Personal Habits. The minister's 
relations toward others are affected by 
habits of cleanliness, dress, eating and 



The Minister in Relation to Others 131 

often of sleeping. It is our duty to be 
physically fit, to apply rules of health 
to our daily living, to appear in such 
clothes as are fit and becoming and to 
give such personal attention to our ap- 
pearance as will not be the cause of 
stumbling or the occasion for remarks 
on the part of others. 

The minister is a public man and he 
is likely at any time to mingle with his 
parishioners in the store, in the office 
or in the home. We all know individual 
ministers who become very negligent in 
matters of dress and ordinary cleanliness. 
They may be able ministers of the gospel 
but very often when their names are 
mentioned, their slovenly dress and little 
mannerisms to the exclusion of their 
nobler qualities of mind and heart like- 
wise suggest themselves. In these things 
we need to remember, as Emerson has 
said: "Good manners are made up of 
petty sacrifices." 



132 The Minister a Man Among Men 

As our habits are the reflex of repeated 
actions, in the study and in the home, 
and in our social contact with others, 
it is necessary to have standards and 
plans and at certain times take an inven- 
tory of our habits, just as a business 
man takes an inventory of his merchan- 
dise. 

The minister of today must be an 
executive, an office worker as well as 
a student in the study. He needs fixed 
hours of study and freedom, so far as 
possible, from interruption. From this 
point of view experience shows that it is 
desirable to have the study of the min- 
ister and his office in the church rather 
than in his home. The danger in the 
home is that the minister may give too 
much time to little duties which are 
important but oftentimes should be per- 
formed by others, and he may be inter- 
rupted too frequently by those who are 
thoughtless as to the value of his time, 



The Minister in Relation to Others 133 

or as to the ill results that follow from 
constant and petty interruptions. 

4. Complaining Habit. Avoid the 
constant habit of speaking of your bodily 
health. A certain minister got so much 
in the habit of saying, whenever his 
members spoke to him, "I am tired," 
that it became a joke in the congregation. 
This same minister would frequently 
speak from the pulpit of his family, 
sometimes saying that he could not 
preach very well today because he had 
taken care of the baby last night. This 
complaining habit grew upon him and 
finally was one of the causes of his resig- 
nation. Better not speak about your- 
self or talk about your complaints. 

5. Covetousness. Dr. Charles E. 
Jefferson, in his book on "The Minister 
as Shepherd," calls attention to the two 
temptations of the minister, against 
which our Lord and two of His apostles 
uttered special and repeated warnings. 



134 The Minister a Man Among Men 

They are the love of gain and the love 
of power — covetousness and ambition. 
The experience of nineteen hundred years 
has shown that these two temptations 
are the most insidious, most constant 
and most fatal. St. Peter, speaking of 
false teachers, says: "And in covetous- 
ness shall they, with feigned words, 
make merchandise of you." And in 
another place: "Having a heart exer- 
cised in covetousness." 

Paul says : "Put to death covetousness. 
It is idolatry." 

Let us remember that covetousness 
means more than the inordinate love of 
money. Ministers, as a rule, are not 
abnormally fond of money. I do not 
believe there is any set of men in the 
world who think so little about it and 
care so little for it. It is true, of course, 
that a man may be grasping and stingy 
even though he has but a small income, 
but the covetousness against which a 



The Minister in Relation to Others 135 

minister must guard himself is an exces- 
sive desire for anything which gratifies 
one's own cravings, personal gratification, 
and an unlawful love of authority. This 
may show itself in the use of his time, 
in his attitude toward his people and the 
general work of the church. 

He may act as if the church existed 
for him rather than he as the minister 
for the church. Some men use the min- 
istry as a stepping stone to something 
else and the salary of the pastor as a 
base of supplies for other work. It is a 
sad reflection on the ministry when men 
go into the lecture business, act as teach- 
ers or instructors in the public schools 
or institutions of learning, to which they 
are giving their chief time and at the 
same time are drawing their salaries as 
pastors. In exceptional cases dire neces- 
sity may compel a man to hold a dual 
position. 

Covetousness shows itself in conceit 
and in an exaggerated idea of one's worth. 



136 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Such men feel that they have not been 
recognized as they should be. They 
criticize men who occupy influential 
pastorates. They do foolish things and 
become pessimistic and destroy their 
spiritual life. 

Covetousness also shows itself in ne- 
glect in visiting the sick, in looking up 
outsiders, in speaking with young people 
who are facing great temptations. The 
covetous man thinks so much about 
himself that he does not have sufficient 
time to give thought to others. He suc- 
cumbs to this subtle temptation because 
his pastoral neglect may not be brought 
to the surface and no one reprove him 
for failing to do his duty. 

You can also notice the spirit of covet- 
ousness in men who are cowardly. The 
covetous man will not face moral issues. 
He is afraid to show his colors. In 
matters of church benevolence covetous- 
ness shows itself. Many a minister is 



The Minister in Relation to Others 137 

afraid to present the great missionary 
causes of the church because of the 
pronounced opposition of some influ- 
ential man. The covetous man, as the 
Saviour described him, is a hireling and 
not a shepherd and he flees at the sight 
of a wolf. You can be sure that the 
occasion will arise which will open your 
eyes to the sin of covetousness and to its 
subtle, deceitful character. Our Christ- 
ian faith and oftentimes the Christian 
faith of earnest men in the congregation, 
may be in danger of destruction from 
the spirit of covetousness. The test is 
in the man's motives and actions. If 
the minister is working for himself, rather 
than for the welfare of his congregation 
and the kingdom of Christ, his selfish 
spirit of avarice, whether it be shown in 
the seeking for money or education or 
fame or power, will destroy his usefulness 
and influence for good. 

Let us never forget that the minister's 
salary is not payable in money. He gets 



138 The Minister a Man Among Men 

that which represents the value of money 
— happiness, that which money cannot 
purchase. With all its poverty and its 
difficulties, the minister's is the happiest 
of vocations. If his heart is in his work 
he has the most congenial of tasks. He 
is busy with large concerns worthy of the 
best energies of the best men, with the 
supreme desire to bless his fellowmen. He 
is the minister, the servant in the most 
glorious service of the divine Master. 
His reward is in the affections of his 
people and in the soul enrichment of 
genuine altruistic work. Unless he has 
inherited money he will always be com- 
fortably poor, but rich in the treasure 
house of memory, in the gratitude of 
people to whom he has ministered and 
in the consciousness of fellowship with 
his divine Lord and joy in the doing of 
the work, contented with the wages of 
simply "going on." 

Second. It is important to have clear 
and definite views of the minister's rela- 



The Minister in Relation to Others 139 

tions as a man and an official to the com- 
munity. We have considered standards 
of action and the patient study of human 
nature for the purpose of forming correct 
habits which will help us to influence 
our fellowmen to the higher life. These 
characteristics will, of course, apply to 
the minister's relations in the life of the 
community, but the minister, both as 
a man and because of the office he bears, 
sustains a unique relation to the com- 
munity. It is a relation which receives 
emphasis in the terms of social service, 
in the church as a community force, 
and in the varied movements and agen- 
cies which are the fruitage of the teach- 
ings of the church and the associated 
activities of Christians. 

We do well to recognize that the Christ- 
ian minister is a worker for the kingdom 
of God. This involves the social work 
of the ministry and of the church. We 
are using new terms for an old truth. 



140 The Minister a Man Among Men 

From a study of St. Paul's conception 
of the kingdom you will find that with 
him the kingdom is ethical in character. 
Take the fourteen instances mentioned 
of the kingdom, by St. Paul, and in every 
one except two (2nd Timothy), the 
emphasis and satisfaction of a distinct 
ethical condition is asserted or implied. 
The laws of the kingdom are the eternal 
laws of human welfare. The object of 
the church and so with the minister of 
the church, is the extension, victory and 
abiding supremacy of the kingdom. The 
so-called "social problem" is an ethical 
problem. It is one of character. There- 
fore, the social message of Christianity 
is not incidental but essential. 

The two fundamental questions of the 
Bible are "Where art thou?" and "Where 
is thy brother?" 

Man's relation to God and man's 
relation to his fellows. Therefore, relig- 
ion and morality, the new life of the 



The Minister in Relation to Others 141 

individual and the application of that 
life in relation to others, are inseparable. 
They never can be safely divided. 

We can rejoice that the relation of the 
minister to the community and to the 
people now is vastly more human and 
less ecclesiastical than in the past. While 
the teachings of our Lord have the per- 
sonal note, yet his law of love which 
He lays upon every conscience, the enthu- 
siasm for humanity with which He would 
fill the heart, makes Christianity a 
missionary and an energizing force for 
the transformation of the community 
and the uplift of the lowest. 

The Church exists for the community 
and not the community for the church. 
If this be true, the churches in any one 
community must get together. The par- 
ish system, so far as possible, through 
community grouping of churches and 
federation, must be restored in Prot- 
estantism, for the supreme message of 



142 The Minister a Man Among Men 

the Church to the inner life and to per- 
sonal morality cannot be brought home 
to individuals in the community unless 
the minister and his congregation know 
the religious affiliation and develop a 
constant religious census and oversight 
of the individuals and families of the 
community, just as the tax assessor or 
the political ward leader knows his facts 
in relation to every voter. But the 
community, as a group of people, whether 
as citizens congregated in the city or 
hundreds living pleasantly in a village 
or the scattered families in the country- 
side, has community problems which, 
fundamentally, are questions of human 
relations and, therefore, are moral prob- 
lems. The varied interests of the com- 
munity, its sane government, its business 
and industrial organization, its educa- 
tional interests, the forces of religion, 
various organizations representing relief, 
child welfare, social life, the elimination 



The Minister in Relation to Others 143 

of vice and crime and of the saloon — 
these all are intimately related to the 
happiness and welfare and liberty of 
people in the community. Ministers 
must take their part in the consideration 
of these problems and lead their people 
to see that these community relations 
are as truly a part of the work of the 
church as are its other activities. The 
congregation that lives for the community 
will discover that what were formerly 
vexed problems of congregational exis- 
tence, such as the congregational expenses, 
the improvement of the church building 
and the petty jealousies of individuals, 
will disappear. The congregation finds 
itself in losing its life for others. 

The religion of Jesus Christ means the 
redemption of the whole life of man and 
the minister's duty and privilege is to 
use his influence in all the varied relations 
of community life. The church that 
develops in its people a community spirit 



144 The Minister a Man Among Men 

and does neighborly parish work will 
find that its influence will not only grow 
but its own life, in point of numbers 
and in spiritual uplift, will be greatly 
enlarged. 

If you wish to have a vision of what 
the minister can do and of the actual, 
practical work of a church in relation 
to the community, study the little book 
entitled "The Church a Community 
Force," by Rev. Worth M. Tippy, pastor 
of the Epworth Memorial Church, Cleve- 
land, Ohio, published by the Missionary 
Education Movement, New York. 

The new vision of community service 
immeasurably enlarges the work of the 
minister and restores to him more than 
the old-time influence of the minister 
as the educated man in the community. 
This vision prevents the local congrega- 
tion from existing as a religious group 
or club. It removes selfishness and re- 
ligious isolation, it strikes the evangelistic 



The Minister in Relation to Others 145 

note; it means that the minister and 
church must study its own community 
problems and let the light of the church 
become the light of the community. It 
calls for a study of one's neighborhood 
and the possibilities of the local congre- 
gation, and from the experience thus 
derived it will be found that the open 
country, the rural town, the small city, 
are as rich fields for community service 
as the large cities. 

This is an heroic age for the men who 
will be men, who will fight entrenched 
evil and who will bring the gospel of 
peace and goodwill to bear upon the 
community and upon the times in which 
they live. Richard Watson Gilder gives 
the truth in his poem on the Heroic Age : 

"He speaks not well who doth his time deplore, 
Naming it new and little and obscure, 
Ignoble and unfit for lofty deeds. 
All times were modern in the times of them, 
And this no more than others. Do thy part 
Here in the living day, as did the great 



146 The Minister a Man Among Men 

Who made old days immortal! So shall men, 
Gazing long back to this far-looming hour, 
Say: 'Then the time when men were truly 

men; 
Though wars grew less, their spirits met the 

test 
Of new conditions; conquering civic wrong; 
Saving the state anew by virtuous lives; 
Guarding the country's honor as their own, 
And their own as their country's and their 

sons' : 
Defying leagued fraud with single truth; 
Not fearing loss and daring to be pure.'" 

Third. The minister in his relations 
to the community, in social service, in 
teaching and in all other movements of 
the church must never fail to give the 
supreme message which is Jesus Christ 
and Him crucified. The redemption of 
society is through the redemption of the 
individual by the new life of the Saviour, 
his Lord and the Lord of society. 

The preeminently rewarding work of 
the ministry is the personal work in 
soul-saving and this work is fundamental 



The Minister in Relation to Others 147 

to the well-being of the community, and 
the nation. I believe with all my heart 
in social service but I agree with Dr. 
Charles E. Jefferson, who at a great 
convention of his church called attention 
to the fact that in America "we have 
suffered a heart-breaking disillusionment. 
We expected great things from liberty 
and education, and have found that they 
are broken reeds. Neither our wealth 
nor our science has given us either peace 
or joy. The four wizards — liberty and 
education and wealth and science — have 
performed their mightiest miracles under 
our flag; but they cannot do the one thing 
essential, they cannot keep the conscience 
quick, or the soul alive to God. Our sins 
are as scarlet and our vices are red like 
crimson, and we need prophets to turn 
the nation to the God who will abund- 
antly pardon." 

And so I wish to emphasize, in particu- 
lar, individual work for individuals. The 
world, as well as Christians generally, 



148 The Minister a Man Among Men 

looks to the minister as the one trained 
worker who can deal with individual 
souls. If he fail at this most vital point, 
his ministry will be shorn of the power 
which inspires and makes real and human 
his preaching and teaching and all social 
service activities. The minister who 
learns from the teaching and example of 
our Lord the immeasurable value in the 
Father's eyes of each single soul gained 
for his kingdom and how its recovery 
repays the utmost pains or sacrifice it 
may cost, that minister will learn how 
to do personal work. 

Charles G. Trumbull, Editor of the 
Sunday School Times, who has given us 
perhaps the most practical manual on 
individual soul-saving in the book entitled 
"Taking Men Alive" considers three 
truths in reference to such work. He 
says: 

"1. The work of individual soul-saving 
is the greatest work that God permits 



The Minister in Relation to Others 149 

men to do. 

"2. It was Christ's own preferred 
method of work, as it is his preferred 
method for us today, for it is always 
the most effective way of working. 

"3. It is the hardest work in the world 
to do and it always will be the hardest." 

Mr. Trumbull's book is a study in the 
principles and practice of individual soul- 
winning, based on his father's book 
entitled "Individual Work for Indi- 
viduals." A record of personal experi- 
ences and conviction. 

This book on "Individual Work for 
Individuals" by Dr. Henry Clay Trum- 
bull is a classic on the subject. His own 
conversion came about as a result of a 
letter from a friend and of his appeal to 
him to become a Christian. Mr. Trum- 
bull was surprised that this friend, who 
had taken his stand for Christ during a 
revival, did not say anything to him on 
the subject, but later the friend wrote a 



150 The Minister a Man Among Men 

letter which was the turning point in 
his life. As soon as Mr. Trumbull had 
come to the point of Christian decision 
for himself, he says that he looked about 
him for another man. He spoke to an 
associate in the office who was also a 
fellow-boarder with him. They were 
accustomed to walk together to and fro 
from the boarding house to the office 
and were constantly thrown into contact 
with each other. As they walked to- 
gether, Mr. Trumbull told his friend of 
his new decision for Christ and urged 
him to make a like decision. The answer 
burned in the lesson of the need and 
neglect of individual work. "Trumbull, 
your words cut me to the heart. You 
little think how they rebuke me. I've 
long been a professed follower of Christ; 
and you have never suspected this, 
although we've been in close association 
in house and office for years. I've never 
said a word to you for the Saviour whom 



The Minister in Relation to Others 151 

I trust. I've never urged you to trust 
Him. I've never said a word for Him. 
And now a follower of his, and a friend 
of yours, from a distance, has been the 
means of leading you to Him. And here 
are you, inviting me to come to that 
Saviour of whom I have been a silent 
follower for years. May God forgive 
me for my lack of faithfulness!" 

It is well worth the while of every 
theological student and minister to study 
the two books I have named. May I 
call to your attention several matters 
in Mr. Trumbull's experience which we 
need to keep constantly in mind? One 
is the answer to the question on the 
dangers of personal evangelism. Of a 
certain experience in the army he wrote: 
"That experience with my first convert 
encouraged me with my individual work 
for individuals. I saw that it were better 
to make a mistake in one's first effort at 
a personal religious conversation and 



152 The Minister a Man Among Men 

correct that mistake afterwards, than 
not to make any effort. There can be 
no mistake so bad in working for an 
individual soul for Christ, as the fatal 
mistake of not making any honest en- 
deavor. How many persons refrain from 
doing anything lest they should possibly 
do the wrong thing just now. Not doing 
is the worst of doing. "Inasmuch as 
ye did it not, . . . depart from me," 
is the foretold sentence of the Judge of 
all. In another place the author says: 
"The devil's favorite argument with 
a believer is that just now is not a good 
time to speak on the subject. A lover 
of Christ and of souls is told that he will 
harm the cause he loves by introducing 
the theme of themes just now." 

Dr. Trumbull's book on Individual 
Work was written after its author was 
seventy years of age. He testifies that 
it is his honest belief that he did far more 
good in his dealing with individuals than 



The Minister in Relation to Others 153 

he ever did in his long years of work as 
editor of the Sunday School Times, speak- 
ing every week to hundreds of thousands 
of people, or in his books — and they were 
many, which he published, on vitally 
important subjects, some of them having 
a large circulation. He also has this to 
say as to the "ease" in doing personal 
work which his long practice had brought 
him : "From nearly half a century of such 
practice, as I have had opportunity day 
by day, I can say that I have spoken with 
thousands upon thousands on the subject 
of their spiritual welfare. Yet, so far 
from my becoming accustomed to this 
matter, so that I can take hold of it as 
a matter of course, I find it as difficult 
to speak about it at the end of these years 
as at the beginning. Never to the present 
day can I speak to a single soul for Christ 
without being reminded by Satan that 
I am in danger of harming the cause by 
introducing it just now. If there is one 



154 The Minister a Man Among Men 

thing that Satan is sensitive about, it is 
the danger of a Christian's harming the 
cause he loves by speaking of Christ to 
a needy soul. He (Satan) has more than 
once, or twice, or thrice, kept me from 
speaking on the subject by his sensitive 
pious caution, and he has tried a thousand 
times to do so. Therefore, my experience 
leads me to suppose that he is urging 
other persons to try any method for souls 
except the best one." 

The minister who has a catechetical 
class, and who keeps in close touch with 
the young people in his Sunday School 
and Young People's Society, has an easy, 
natural method of approach in dealing 
with individuals. Catechetical class in- 
struction can be directed to meet the 
situation which conversations with the 
members of the class disclose. Indeed, 
the richest experience of the ministry 
is in personal conversation and prayer 
with the young people and the individuals 
preparing for membership in the church. 



The Minister in Relation to Others 155 

Through the many years of his pas- 
torate Dr. McCauley arranged either at 
his home or in the church to meet indi- 
vidually every member of his catechetical 
class for personal conversation and 
prayer. He used personal efforts not 
only in soul-winning but in influencing 
others for his Master's work. A prom- 
inent minister in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, for whom Dr. McCauley was 
guardian, tells with the deepest feeling of 
his personal conversations with Dr. Mc- 
Cauley. Always before the young boy 
would go away to school the faithful 
guardian would call him into his study 
for personal conversation and prayer. 
On one occasion he said to this lad of 
seventeen: "You know a minister has 
many problems and great burdens of 
souls to carry and I would be very glad 
if I could know you were praying for me 
every day," and the lad, through all the 
years of his preparatory school and college 



156 The Minister a Man Among Men 

life and on to the day of the death of 
Dr. McCauley, never failed to pray for 
this man of God. No wonder this young 
man, when he wrote out, in his applica- 
tion for admission to the seminary, some 
answers to questions relating to his life, 
said: "If I ever amount to anything in 
this world I owe it to the Rev. Dr. Charles 
F. McCauley who was my guardian for 
six years." 

One of the prominent ministers of the 
Reformed Church told me recently that 
years ago when he was but ten years old, 
Dr. McCauley was a visitor in his father's 
home. He had a pleasant talk with the 
young lad and suggested that he might 
some day become a minister and after 
his return home he wrote a three-page 
letter to the little boy on the subject of 
his becoming a minister. 

If I may be pardoned, speaking out of 
my own experience, it may be worth 
while to mention the fact that the Broth- 



The Minister in Relation to Others 157 

erhood of Andrew and Philip came into 
being in part as a result of talking to 
six young men on the subject of taking 
a stand for Christ and uniting with the 
church. Each of the six was in the 
pastor's Bible Class and agreed to take 
the step if all would take it together. 
This evidence of the influence of one 
young man upon another had much to do 
with the organization of the Brotherhood. 
It is fair to say that literally hundreds, 
if not thousands, of men have united 
with the church through the individual 
and associated efforts of Brotherhood 
men, the influencing of one man by an- 
other and oftentimes the lateral and 
combined influence of groups of men 
one upon the other. 

The ways of doing personal work are 
as varied as are individuals, but if the 
supreme importance and necessity of 
individual work is kept in mind it will 
be discovered that sermons and Bible 



158 The Minister a Man Among Men 

study and prayer meetings as well as the 
work of church organizations, like the 
Ladies' Aid Society, the Missionary Soci- 
ety, Sunday School and Class Organi- 
zations, etc., can all be utilized and 
directed and made effective for indi- 
vidual soul-winning. One illustration 
perhaps will indicate possibilities. A 
certain doctor and his wife attended the 
Sunday evening service. A little per- 
sonal conversation revealed the fact that 
the wife was the daughter of a Methodist 
minister and the husband was brought 
up as a Presbyterian, but neither had 
ever made a confession of religion. Sev- 
eral sermons were preached, directed 
toward them, as a result of conversations. 
Several long walks were taken with the 
doctor. His spiritual difficulties were 
discovered. Dr. Philip Schaff's book on 
"The Person of Christ" was loaned to 
the doctor and within a few months 
the minister had the joy of receiving 



The Minister in Relation to Others 159 

both into the membership of the Christian 
Church. 

Personal work in soul-winning is the 
finest of Christian arts and Paul has 
given us the principle underlying the 
work: "If though I was free from all 
men I brought myself under bondage to 
all that I might gain the more." "I am 
become all things to all men that I may 
by all means save some." It was our 
Lord who said: "Follow me and I will 
make you to become fishers of men." 
The successful fisherman embodies the 
characteristics which every soul-winner 
should have. They are, as has been well 
stated, "patience, knowledge of the inter- 
ests of his fish, knowledge of the bait 
that would attract fish, faith in things 
not seen, skill, delicacy of touch, refusal 
to be discouraged, unlimited persever- 
ance, conviction that he has not yet 
exhausted the possibilities of his art. 
All these, and more, make a true fisher- 



160 The Minister a Man Among Men 

man and it is important to note that 
not a single one of these essentials is 
beyond the power of any one to attain. 
If one is not "born" a fisherman he can 
learn how and he ought. Christ's de- 
mands are always reasonable. He never 
enjoins impossible things without making 
them possible. The all-important thing is 
to get a passion for souls. The love of 
souls keeps us from professionalism, from 
cant, from excessive zeal and from 
strengthening simply an ecclesiastical 
institution. It is love, love for Jesus 
Christ and our f ellowmen, that will enable 
us, as ministers, to crucify self, form 
correct habits of life, throw ourselves 
into the work of the community, and 
spend our time in loving, personal min- 
istry to individual men and women. 

How did McCheyne preach, it was 
asked? "As if he wanted to save your 
soul," was the reply. The true minister 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be sure 



The Minister in Relation to Others 161 

that he sustains the right relations to his 
fellowmen when he shows that he loves 
other souls and goes about doing them 
good. 



THE MINISTER AS A MAN IN 
RELATION TO THE CHURCH 

The Christian minister can never be pro- 
vincial or parochial in his tastes or ambitions. 
The kingdom of Christ has no boundary or 
limitation and "no end." 



THE MINISTER AS A MAN IN 
RELATION TO THE CHURCH 

Lecture Three 

The minister of today is called to be 
preeminently a headmaster of religious 
instruction. He must be an executive. 
In the pulpit and out of it his teaching 
work must bulk large. He is called to 
exercise evangelistic gifts and, to use a 
phrase of a modern manufacturing plant, 
he is, or ought to be, an "Efficiency 
Engineer." 

The overwhelming responsibilities of 
the minister's office in these respects 
cannot fail to be felt if one recognizes 
the fact that the local church or congre- 
gation must be a community church, a 
force to work with, not a field to work 
in. The call to the modern church is to 
keep in view all the interests of all the 
people both from the standpoint of the 
here and the hereafter. In short, it is 
to serve the people and to extend the 

(165) 



166 The Minister a Man Among Men 

kingdom of Jesus Christ the world over. 
It is not simply to build up the local 
congregation, although that follows. 
Splendid buildings, good equipment, bills 
paid at the end of the year, a fair atten- 
dance, some contributions toward the 
work of the denomination — these do not 
justify the existence of the local church. 
The church is sent on the same errand 
as its divine Master and Head who said: 
"The son of man came not to be minis- 
tered unto but to minister and to give 
his life a ransom for many." In the light 
of these statements let us consider 

1st. The relation of the minister to 
the local congregation. Note briefly 
what may be called a comprehensive and 
constructive program, the spirit or the 
proper atmosphere of the minister and 
his church. 

2nd. His relation to the judicatories or 
bodies of the denomination to which his 
congregation belongs. 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 167 

3rd. The minister's relations to the 
benevolent causes and agencies. 

4th. His relations to interdenomina- 
tional agencies and cooperative or federa- 
tive bodies. 

In the first place, a comprehensive and 
constructive program for the minister as 
a leader and an executive requires the 
recognition of an organizing principle. 
The minister and his congregation must 
know where they are going, and what 
they are purposing to do. The minister 
should put these questions to himself 
when he enters upon the pastorate and 
in the light of them examine his work 
at stated intervals. In the business 
world the past twenty-five years a study 
of business conditions and needs and 
opportunities has resulted in what is 
called "Scientific management as a work- 
ing philosophy of business." It is the 
application of the efficiency test to busi- 
ness. Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, one of 



168 The Minister a Man Among Men 

the two chief representatives of the 
system, states that scientific management 
is not mere "speeding up" but is a prac- 
tical philosophy destined to replace hap- 
hazard, traditional methods. It sets up 
a normal and standard method of per- 
forming a task by the observation of 
those actually performing the task. It 
is the wisdom of experience mixed with 
brains and definite purpose. 

Four underlying principles of manage- 
ment, according to Mr. Taylor, are 

1. The development of a true science. 

2. The scientific selection and training 
of individual workmen. 

3. The cooperation on the part of the 
management, with the men, so as to 
insure that all work is done in accordance 
with the principles of the science which 
has been developed. 

4. Intimate, friendly cooperation be- 
tween the management and the men, the 
management taking over work which it 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 169 

is better fitted than the workmen to 
perform and planning the workmen's 
tasks in detail. 

Dr. Shailer Mathews has summed up 
the essence of Efficiency Management 
in business under the following heads: 

1. The centering of attention upon 
operation. 

2. The standardizing of operation in 
terms of function rather than of com- 
petition and "speeding up." 

3. The division of labor by which the 
planning and the performance of tasks 
are separated and each is highly special- 
ized. 

4. The education of those performing 
the specialized task, as to their functions 
and precise duties. 

5. The adjustment of all plans and 
tasks into perfect cooperation, through 
an appeal to cooperative rather than 
competitive self-interest. 

6. The use and, when needed, the 
invention of appropriate equipment. 



170 The Minister a Man Among Men 

7. The appeal to motives which will 
induce workmen to submit to the direc- 
tion and control involved in the entire 
plan. 

Is it practicable to apply such efficiency 
tests or scientific management to the 
local church as a working organization? 
If we keep in mind the fundamental 
differences between a great business cor- 
poration and a church, it would seem 
to be feasible to do so. The real tests 
of efficiency in the church are spiritual. 
"The fruits of the Spirit" must appear 
both in the minister and members if the 
church is fulfilling its functions. Its 
fruits cannot be measured, tabulated or 
always made concrete. Then the church 
has to deal with voluntary and, for the 
most part, unskilled workers. In indus- 
try the workers are picked and under 
control because they are paid wages or 
salary. Superintendents or heads of de- 
partments can issue orders and increase 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 171 

the force and equipment in a way that 
is not possible in a church. Men at the 
head of business establishments sustain 
vitally different relations to their working 
force compared to that of the minister 
as leader in the congregation. The 

appeal to motive is radically different. 
Making allowance for these differences, 
it nevertheless seems true that the funda- 
mental functions of the church, expressed 
in terms of service and life, can be tested, 
not by any rigid standard of efficiency 
but rather by the definite tasks to which 
the church sets herself — tasks resulting 
from the exercise of the graces and life 
of the Christian, in attempting to meet 
the needs of the people and the command 
of her great Head. It is the business 
of the minister to secure a proper organi- 
zation of the church so as to develop the 
membership and to use them as a force 
in doing the work for which the church 
exists. 



172 The Minister a Man Among Men 

The modern business organization has 
its great departments, such as the Manu- 
facturing Department, the Sales Depart- 
ment, the Publicity Department, etc., 
and a proper division of labor; so the 
Christian congregation is coming to see 
that the work of the minister is not so 
much to serve the individual church 
member as to help and train him in 
service for others. Even the gospel 
itself goes into the heart of the Christian 
by the application of the principle: "We 
learn by doing." " Self -activity is the 
law of growth." And so the church 
members must work. They must find 
their spheres of usefulness, in the social 
uplift of the community, in the winning 
of new members to the church and in 
educating themselves to specialized, def- 
inite lines of activity. 

It is not possible to consider, within 
the limits of this chapter, a comprehen- 
sive and constructive program in the 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 173 

work of the local church, but a few 
factors of efficiency may be mentioned 
which deserve special attention in the 
light of the changed conditions in habits 
of living, in the industrial order and in 
the needs of the hour as they relate 
themselves to the church and the con- 
sequent necessity for readjustment of 
church methods. 

(A) The local church should keep 
proper records. It goes without saying 
that it is the duty of the pastor to see 
that there are kept, by the proper officers, 
complete minutes of meetings, records 
of members baptized and confirmed, 
their attendance upon communion, etc.; 
but records which the church must have 
today in order to do its work intelli- 
gently, and not in the dark, are applica- 
tion blanks for membership which cover 
pledges to render service, cards for the 
assignment of particular tasks, blanks 
to report services rendered, stated reports 



174 The Minister a Man Among Men 

from the organizations within the con- 
gregation to the consistory. There must 
also be careful supervision through stand- 
ing committees of the activities of the 
congregational agencies, an administra- 
tive committee, with the pastor an 
ex-officio member, and careful records 
of the financial and benevolent operations 
of the congregation and of its affiliated 
organizations arranged for comparison 
from year to year, also stated printed 
reports to the members of the congrega- 
tion, issued weekly, monthly, quarterly, 
or, at least, annually, giving in detail 
items of receipts and expenditures and 
summaries of the various lines of activity 
of the members and the agencies of the 
church. 

But you say this would seem to make 
the church something of a business estab- 
lishment. Exactly. That is what should 
be the case. Our religion is one of light 
and knowledge and if we have been 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 175 

regarding the church as capable of per- 
forming its possible services to the com- 
munity and to the kingdom without the 
most elementary means of administra- 
tion, it is time we come to see our mistake 
and remedy the situation. 

(B) A Church Budget. The budget is 
a statement of the probable revenues and 
expenses for the ensuing year. The 
church budget is a detailed statement 
prepared by the church treasurer or 
finance committee of the several sums 
that can reasonably be depended on to 
constitute the church's total income and 
of the items that may be expected to 
enter into its total disbursements. A 
budget sets before a church a definite 
goal. It prevents the making of appro- 
priations for which there are no prospec- 
tive funds. It helps the church to detect 
unwise and disproportionate appropria- 
tions and it often stimulates the members 
to make larger offerings for objects that 



176 The Minister a Man Among Men 

have not been provided for as they 
deserve. 

The budget plan is workable in a 
small as well as in a large church, in the 
country as well as in the city or small 
town. The budget plan should include 
not only estimated receipts and estimated 
operating expenses for the congregation, 
such as pastor's salary, pulpit supplies, 
music, Sunday School or schools, sexton, 
fuel, light, printing, etc., but the budget 
should also provide opportunity for the 
members to give to definite, benevolent 
causes and philanthropic enterprises — 
contributions to missions of all kinds; 
education, Sunday School work, minis- 
terial aid, hospitals, relief of the poor 
and a score of similar agencies usually 
designated by the collective term 
"Church benevolences." There should 
be a separate treasurer for "church 
benevolences"; or in any event the re- 
ceipts for current expenses of all kinds 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 177 

and the receipts for benevolences should 
be kept separate and apart and the one 
should not borrow from the other, or, 
as is sometimes the case, appropriate 
money received for benevolence — for 
use of current expenses. This is rank 
dishonesty and a breach of trust. 

An ideal method for raising both the 
church and benevolent budget is on the 
basis of the weekly offering, collected 
either weekly or monthly. The weekly 
offering plan is the application of the 
budget to the individual church member, 
and experience shows that it is a wise 
and feasible method, productive of larger 
results than any other method of church 
finance. Of course, the weekly budget 
plan implies a dependence upon system- 
atic training in mission study, community 
service, regular presentation of the benev- 
olent causes, an annual canvass by 
informed, enthusiastic canvassers and, 
in addition, provides for special thank 



178 The Minister a Man Among Men 

offerings and the presentation of extra- 
ordinary needs or obligations of the 
church in relation to its own work, the 
community or the denomination to which 
it belongs. 

The minister should make it a rule to 
have his church officers make all an- 
nouncements regarding current expenses 
and offerings for benevolence. The min- 
ister can do his part in presenting causes 
and principles of giving in sermons and 
printed announcements. 

( C) Religious Education for the Young . 
A study of the budget indicates the low 
estimate placed upon the work of the 
Sunday School in religious instruction. 
Protestant churches in the last fifty years 
have been giving an insignificant place 
to the teaching function and this not- 
withstanding the fact that eighty-three 
per cent, of the additions to church mem- 
bership come directly from the Sunday 
School; practically the Sunday School is 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 179 

left to shift for itself and receives only 
an insignificant fraction of the funds of 
the church. Its supplies for its specific 
work of religious education, besides being 
stinted, are often the cheapest in the 
market, and in the case of many Sunday 
Schools a large part of the contributions 
is diverted to outside enterprises such 
as interest on church debts, which, if 
worthy, are usually not nearly as much 
in need of support as the school itself. 
Of course, the pupils should be trained 
to consider interests other than their own 
and it is a distinct educational advance 
to have Sunday Schools give to missions 
and other benevolent causes and phil- 
anthropic objects, but the Sunday Schools 
should be supported through the church 
funds, at least in part. More than this, 
if we are to be true to the idea of educa- 
tional religion and to meet the imperative 
needs of the hour — the importance of 
religious education for the children must 



180 The Minister a Man Among Men 

be magnified. All the agencies of the 
congregation, as well as of the Sunday 
School, intended for the younger children, 
should be developed with the aim of 
nurturing and training the children dur- 
ing the most impressionable years of life, 
centering in the instruction of the pastor 
or of the catechetical class. Unless the 
congregation, through volunteer teachers, 
through pastor and trained deaconesses 
or Christian workers, establishes in the 
church or Sunday School building, either 
for the individual congregation or for 
groups of congregations, stated periods 
for week day religious instruction, we can- 
not expect the Protestant churches to 
hold their own. We surely are not true 
to the real meaning of educational relig- 
ion. Educators over the land are coming 
to recognize more and more that the 
real test of efficiency in the local church 
is the preparation made for the religious 
nurture of the children of non-school age 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 181 

and the instruction in religion and morals 
for the children between the ages of six 
and fifteen. The Sunday School is mak- 
ing marked educational advance but the 
Sunday School alone is not sufficient. 
The time devoted to it is not enough, 
the conditions under which the instruc- 
tion is given are not favorable, the teach- 
ers, as a rule, are not thoroughly equipped, 
the lessons have not been studied by the 
pupils, the home has not reinforced the 
importance and value of the work. Ade- 
quate results, under such circumstances, 
cannot be reasonably expected. May I 
give a single illustration? Here is a boy 
who attends Sunday School for ten years, 
from six to sixteen, a longer period than 
the average. He does not devote as many 
hours to the study of the Bible as the 
same boy gives to a single year's course 
in the High School on Shakespeare. 
What knowledge of arithmetic would a 
child in the memory age from nine to 



182 The Minister a Man Among Men 

twelve acquire if given a half hour's 
instruction once a week for the three 
or four year period? Is it not plain 
that the lack of continuity, of systematic, 
consecutive teaching, the lack of serious 
time and attention, are the fundamental 
reasons for the comparative failure of 
the modern Sunday School and constitute 
a strong argument in favor of revising 
our present methods by giving more time 
and attention to the religious instruction 
of the young? The reform must begin 
with the minister who at present is giving 
ten or twenty per cent, of his time to the 
ripest harvest field of the church and 
eighty to ninety per cent, of his time 
to the cultivation of the soil where rocks 
and thorns abound, where the cares and 
riches of the world choke the word, and 
where, according to the teaching of our 
Lord Himself, only a small percentage 
of the seed sown comes to fruitage. 

(D) Adequate Efficiency Methods call 
for the cooperation of the home. The 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 183 

family is the unit in the church and state. 
The influences that play most profoundly 
upon human life center in the home. 
Philanthropists and the State recognize 
this, as is evidenced by laws on housing 
conditions, child welfare and by the 
efforts of educators in the organization 
of Home and School Leagues to link the 
home and the public school together. 
Does not this point a moral for the 
church? Fundamentally, a successful 
rule laid down and applied to every 
method proposed in the Sunday School 
or congregation is — nothing done for the 
child in which the home does not have 
a part. Parents' Classes, the Cradle 
Roll, the Home Department, are illus- 
trations of tendencies in the right direc- 
tion. 

(E) Evangelism. Because the church 
has failed to give chief time and attention 
to the children, in accordance with the 
idea of educational religion, because of 



184 The Minister a Man Among Men 

the large alien populations in our country, 
because of the massing of people in town 
and city, and because of the practical 
indifference of multitudes of adults and 
the need of bridging over the chasm 
between the unreached adults and the 
church, we cannot fail to recognize the 
necessity of what is called "Evangelism." 
This means that evangelists have their 
place and function. The evangelistic 
note must be sounded by the minister 
in his relation to the local church. This 
will call, not only for united effort at 
times on the part of the churches of the 
community, but also for the readjustment 
of religious services and the application 
of proper publicity methods to enlist the 
interest and attendance of non-church- 
goers and the unsaved through the per- 
sonal efforts of the members of the 
church. Perhaps the safest form of 
continuous evangelism is in the system- 
atic work of the Organized Adult Class 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 185 

and Church Brotherhoods like the Broth- 
erhood of Andrew and Philip, working 
directly upon tasks assigned by the 
pastor. 

(F) A word should be said respecting 
the minister's relations with his official 
board. Always exalt the noble dignity 
of the office of elder and of deacon. Show 
your reverence and careful regard for 
church officers. Let every man feel that 
no greater honor will ever come to him 
than his appointment to service in the 
church of his divine Lord and Saviour. 
The ordination and installation of officers 
affords a splendid opportunity to cause 
them to recognize their high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus. A personal word 
spoken to the officers on the subject is 
helpful, 

Dr. McCauley's lifelong habit was to 
write on important subjects, to his church 
officers, to consult them privately, to 
place upon leaders in his consistory the 



186 The Minister a Man Among Men 

responsibilities for presenting subjects of 
importance. Even when away on vaca- 
tion, Dr. McCauley would write fre- 
quently to members of his official board. 
It is profoundly important that the 
minister should be intimate with his 
church officers, respect their differing 
personalities, study their idiosyncrasies 
and by suggestion and attitude magnify 
the duties of their office. All important 
actions should have a practically unani- 
mous vote in a consistory. Never move 
with small majorities. Never ignore the 
duties placed upon the officers and always 
be careful, by example and word, to 
stimulate every interest in the work of 
the congregation, denomination and king- 
dom. 

(2) The minister as leader must ever 
remember that the atmosphere and spirit 
in which the business and work of the 
church is done determine its real quality 
and value, and more than this, it is the 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 187 

minister who is supremely the creator 
of atmosphere and the one who incarnates 
the real spirit of the church. 

" 'Getting into the spirit of it,' we all 
know," says Troward, the English phil- 
osopher, "the meaning of that phrase in 
our everyday life." "The spirit is that 
which gives life and movement to any- 
thing. In fact, it is that which causes 
it to exist at all; the thought of the 
author, the impression of the painter, the 
feeling of the musician, is that without 
which their works could never have come 
into being, and so it is only as we enter 
into the idea which gives rise to the work, 
that we can derive all the enjoyment and 
benefit from it which it is able to bestow. 
If we cannot enter into the spirit of it, 
the book, the picture, the music are mean- 
ingless to us; to appreciate them we must 
share the mental attitude of their creator. 

"This is a universal principle; if we do 
not enter into the spirit of a thing it is 



188 The Minister a Man Among Men 

dead so far as we are concerned; but if 
we do enter into it we reproduce in 
ourselves the same quality of life which 
called that into existence." 

Applying this to church organization, 
it is the personality or individuality of 
the minister which dominates, but it, in 
turn, is determined by personalities of 
others. There is a reciprocal action. 
One acts upon the other. Your indi- 
viduality, as minister, acts upon the 
individuality of each of your official 
assistants and the individuality of each 
of your assistants reacts upon you. 

The result is a composite individuality 
which becomes the spirit of the organiza- 
tion, and in the case of the church this 
spirit of the organization is influenced and 
made vital by the living Spirit of God. 
If this spirit of the organization flows 
freely from the minister it will develop 
his greatest power and efficiency, but the 
individual minister must never lose sight 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 189 

of his relation to the universal spirit of 
the church organization. If he says, "I 
must assert my own individuality, my 
own personality, in that lies my strength," 
he is correct, and yet in that lies his 
weakness also. Our individuality and 
strength grow only as they are merged 
with the common or universal spirit and 
mind and strength of those with whom 
we are associated. It is humbling our- 
selves that the work may be exalted. 
It is expressing ourselves in terms of the 
institution rather than of the individual 
point of view. It is "team work," bear- 
ing one another's burden and always 
cooperating for the highest end. This 
is the spirit of leadership which lives 
and breathes and acts the sentiment, 
"each for all and all for each." It is this 
universal spirit of service which wins 
in the minister's relations to his church. 
II. Judicatories. What has been said 
with reference to the minister's relations 



190 The Minister a Man Among Men 

to the congregation applies practically 
to his relations to the judicatories of his 
denomination. Says Troward: "Here 
we can cooperate with our fellow-work- 
ers." In relation to the church at large, 
as in life, there is only one proviso at- 
tached to the forwarding movement of 
the spirit in the world of our surroundings 
and that is that we shall cooperate with 
it and this cooperation consists in making 
the best use of existing conditions, in 
cheerful reliance on the spirit of increase 
to express itself through us and for us, 
because we are in harmony with it. 

It is the duty of the minister, according 
to his ordination vow, to be loyal and 
obedient to the actions of his church 
judicatories. In the deliberations of 
those bodies it is proper for him to 
express his views and to put forth the 
utmost effort to have them accepted, 
but when the judicatory passes an action 
there should be not only cheerful acqui- 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 191 

escence but active effort to make real and 
effective the action. 

This relation to the judicatory places 
solemn obligations upon the minister. 

Here everything that he says and does 
may exert an influence, not only in his 
denomination but far beyond it. It may 
have a bearing on the happiness of his 
brethren, his own usefulness and the 
salvation of others, to an extent which 
no one can measure. 

In the church judicatory the minister 
is called continually to act with others, 
as well as for others. My duties in the 
church at large have led me to be in 
attendance upon judicatories of every 
character in various parts of the country 
and it would seem that many ministerial 
brethren regard lightly the obligations 
resting upon them. They absent them- 
selves frequently, waste time in sight- 
seeing and social enjoyments during the 
sessions. 



192 The Minister a Man Among Men 

The time limit of church judicatories 
is an important fact. Unlike legislative 
bodies of state or nation, church judica- 
tories cannot continue to sit beyond a 
very few days. Every moment, therefore, 
is doubly precious. Every unnecessary 
speech, every trivial interruption, every 
failure to attend punctually and faith- 
fully, every neglect or piece of carelessness 
in committee work, may have serious 
results. 

Church judicatories form an essential 
feature of church government. Atten- 
dance upon them and faithful attention 
to the work of the judicatory is as much 
a duty as preaching or visiting the sick 
or any other duty of the ministry. 
Doubtless the method of procedure and 
of conducting business in our church 
judicatories is susceptible of large im- 
provement. It would seem plain that the 
laymen should be given larger responsibili- 
ties. Much of the work should be pre- 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 193 

pared long in advance of the meeting 
and the spirit of forbearance and of 
Christian love should more fully rule. 
There should be fewer resolutions, more 
enthusiasm, more earnest endeavor to 
carry out the measures proposed and 
approved. Christianity is a religion of 
love, and ministers, with their lay breth- 
ren in church judicatories, ought to be 
most zealous for order, united action, 
open-minded judicial attitude, freedom 
from prejudice or passion and a vision 
which looks away and beyond the view- 
point of personal predilections or simply 
congregational conditions. 

(3) The spirit of cooperation and of 
whole-hearted interest should manifest 
itself in the minister's relations to the 
benevolent causes and agencies and insti- 
tutions of the denomination to which he 
belongs. It is his duty to be thoroughly 
familiar with their work, for their work 
is his work. Let it never be forgotten 



194 The Minister a Man Among Men 

that the Missionary Boards, for instance, 
of a denomination, are simply the agents 
appointed to administer the work for 
the churches. It is a partnership affair. 
It is doing by proxy that which the 
minister or the members of his congre- 
gation cannot do for themselves but which 
they are obligated to do by the terms 
of the gospel they profess. 

The Boards are the creation of the 
church judicatories; therefore, they offi- 
cially represent the local church. This is 
true, likewise, to a greater or less degree, 
of educational institutions, orphans' 
homes and other agencies of a denomi- 
nation. Ministers make a most grievous 
mistake and do incalculable harm when 
they publicly or privately at the wrong 
time and place criticize or decry the 
work of the Boards. There are many 
congregations whose official Board and 
members are prejudiced against great 
causes of the church because of the atti- 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 195 

tude of the ministers. More than once 
have I talked with ministers who have 
experienced, coming into a new pastorate, 
the ill effects of such unwise contact. 
In a certain congregation the minister 
would allow, in his brief pastorate, offer- 
ings to be taken only for the cause of the 
Orphan. To this day, some of his prom- 
inent and well-to-do members are opposed 
to missions and other benevolent causes 
because of prejudice and foolish state- 
ments regarding Boards and institutions 
of the church made by that minister. 
Another minister poisoned the mind of a 
liberal-hearted elder against a great Board 
of the church because of personal feeling 
against the Secretary of that Board and 
the pastor of that elder found that a gift 
of a thousand dollars or more was lost 
because of the prejudice lodged in the 
mind of the elder. 

Is it not plain that to develop the 
Christian virtues of fairness and courtesy 



196 The Minister a Man Among Men 

it is important for the minister to try to 
see things as others see them, to speak 
and act with a view to the feelings of 
others, as well as of himself, to look 
through the eyes of those charged with 
responsibility for the general work of 
the church and in all things to be char- 
itable and always ready to cooperate to 
the extent of his ability? 

(4) There are many interdenomina- 
tional agencies such as the local, State 
and International S. S. Association, the 
local Associated Charities and hospitals 
and multiform other agencies for com- 
munity uplift, with which the minister 
must sustain a friendly and sympathetic 
relation. There are the community 

Inter-church Federation and the great 
federative bodies such as the Federal 
Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America, etc., the Council of the Re- 
formed Churches in America holding the 
Presbyterian System. These movements 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 197 

are full of promise for the larger activities 
and unity of the church of Jesus Christ. 
We cannot separate ourselves from them 
without personal loss, and injury to the 
membership of the church as well. In- 
deed, the efficient minister and church 
will give specialized tasks to the member- 
ship so as to relate the activities of the 
individual members to these various 
agencies and uplift movements. Par- 
ticularly is it true that in the present 
divided state of Protestantism, coopera- 
tion on Christian principles instead of 
competition on business principles is 
one of the most urgent needs of the 
churches today. Cooperation econom- 
mizes effort. It prevents over-lapping 
and over-looking. Cooperation stimu- 
lates effort. Intelligent cooperation in- 
volves system and the systematic effort 
to reach the entire community. It 

stops competition. Churches cease 
hindering one another and begin help- 



198 The Minister a Man Among Men 

ing one another. Cooperation secures 
mutual acquaintance which is fruitful 
in Christian confidence and helpfulness. 
The organic union of families of churches 
must come not through discussion, but 
through cooperative effort. Cooperation 
localizes responsibility. It makes possi- 
ble, for instance, the restoration, through 
church federation, of the parish system 
of Protestantism. A group of commun- 
ity churches, whether in the country or 
town or city, by working together, can 
adequately cover their field, can chal- 
lenge, in the light of actual knowledge, 
men and women and children to come 
into proper relations with the church and 
its work. Let us not forget that in the 
sweep of these larger movements the 
minister and his congregation, through 
the denomination to which he belongs, 
through the great missionary and benevo- 
lent causes and agencies and institutions 
of the churches, and through the great 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 199 

interdenominational federative move- 
ments of the day, comes into the larger 
vision and real accomplishment of faith 
and hope and love which makes the life 
of the Christian a reality and a blessing 
here and hereafter. The minister's work 
is unique. It has no length or depth or 
height. It covers time and eternity. 

The minister has a gospel and does 
a work directly and specifically to man 
as a mortal and an immortal being. He 
addresses man as a son of God who is 
an heir of eternity. He trains the indi- 
vidual to prepare himself for an earthly 
and for a heavenly citizenship. The 
larger horizon of the church in its relation 
to the community, the church at large, 
the nation and the world as one great 
family, develops the spiritual faculties 
and makes it easier for the church mem- 
ber to throw upon the landscape of this 
world a new light that shines far beyond 
the common day and reveals the immortal 



200 The Minister a Man Among Men 

life. The great world tasks of the church 
brighten and lift up the common round 
of life, and the hope of the immortal life 
lends strength to the arm and inspiration 
to the motive making possible the 
achievement. 

Thus it seems to me it is the minister's 
glorious privilege, in his relation to the 
church, to find himself and others in the 
great workshop and training school of 
our Father's house. Here we actually 
have a part with the divine Architect, 
Teacher and Pilot of the church, the 
ark of safety. 

Have you ever read one of the most 
delightful tales Kipling ever told, which 
illustrates the point which we have been 
endeavoring to make in this lecture? I 
refer to his tale "The Ship That Found 
Itself" in Kipling's "Stories and Poems 
Every Child Should Know." Be sure to 
read it and as you read it think of the 
minister and the King's business and 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 201 

the finding of this business by the joint 
activity of the minister and his church. 
The ship Kipling tells about was sailing 
on her maiden voyage. The owner's 
daughter, having just christened the 
boat, remarks to the captain, in her joy, 
that now she is a real ship. But the 
captain, with his larger experience, replies 
that it requires more than christening 
to make a ship; that she has first to find 
herself. And then the ship goes to sea — 
to "find herself." The sailing is smooth 
so long as the sea is smooth. Then a 
storm appears. The waves mount higher 
and higher. The ship begins to creak 
and groan, and "to talk," as Kipling 
expresses it. The various parts of the 
ship talk to each other — the capstan, the 
deck-beams, the deck-stringers, the 
frames, the plates, the rivets, the screw, 
the engines, the cylinders, the piston — 
even the steam, which gives much fath- 
erly advice to them all. Some of the 



202 The Minister a Man Among Men 

parts cry out for more room — more play. 
The rivets retort that they are placed 
where they are to hold tight, and they 
are going to do it! 

But even the rivets soon find that they 
can't hold absolutely tight, and they 
give a little — and then all the parts of 
the ship are eased up. Finally, one calls 
out that they should pull together. The 
cry is taken up — "pull together, pull 
together." The ship is finding herself. 
Every part of her gives and takes a little. 
Soon all the parts begin to learn that 
they must give and take together, that 
they must work in unison, that even 
though each must render a different 
service, they all must work together for 
the good of the general service. And 
when the ship finally comes into the 
harbor, buffeted and battered by the 
waves, she has not only found herself, 
but more important still : each individual 
piece in the ship has found itself. 



The Minister in Relation to the Church 203 

So gradually may we all learn the truth 
expressed by the poet, 

"Nothing useless is or low, 
Each in its place is best; 
What seems but idle show, 
Strengthens and supports the rest." 

"Now ye are the body of Christ and 
members in particular, and all the mem- 
bers are necessary" and must work 
together. 












1 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 075 387 2 



